Government orders review of snow readiness

Thursday, 2nd December 2010

As freezing winter weather causes havoc to travel across the country, the government has ordered an urgent review of the UK’s preparation for winter weather. In the run up to the waves of snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures, many local authorities said they were ready to deal with winter this year.

Phillip Hammond, the transport secretary, said there was ‘no excuse’ why communication with stranded travellers was so poor. Half of the UK’s workforce got to work late. An ever bigger percentage had to leave work early in order to make it home safely.

Through the UK, railway services have been crippled and major roadways blocked, forcing many travellers to spend Tuesday night on broken-down railway carriages or in their cars. Gatwick and Edinburgh airports had to close to flights as successive waves of snow defeated attempts by crews to keep runways free.

Last month, RAC Foundation chair David Quarmby published his recommendations for dealing with an extended cold spell. At that time, Mr Quarmby said England’s local authorities had sufficient supplies of grit to prevent a repeat of the problems seen during the last spell of freezing temperatures in 2009-2010.

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