Every post spot on. Winter tyres in Germany because it snows generally in winter. None of that in the UK because people (not the council or the government) do not believe in investing in winter tyres. The UK public prefer to put the blame on the council or the government for roads that are undriveable because the gritting isn't up to scratch. Guess what? The gritting in Germany isn't that amazing either and hasn't ever been that good. But almost everybody in Germany changes to winter tyres in November until just after Easter and manages to drive about even in wintery weather. What went wrong in the UK, I wonder
Simple fact it does not snow enough in the UK to justify spending billions snow clearing equipment, In Scandinavia Gemany and rusia, it snows every year from Nov-March so they have the infrastucture to deal with it, Here apart from the last two winters we normaly only get a couple of bad snow storms a year, so the expenditure can not be justified.
Who says it cannot be justified? - the bean counters, which is why the UK is never prepared for anything.
Every post spot on. Winter tyres in Germany because it snows generally in winter. None of that in the UK because people (not the council or the government) do not believe in investing in winter tyres. The UK public prefer to put the blame on the council or the government for roads that are undriveable because the gritting isn't up to scratch. Guess what? The gritting in Germany isn't that amazing either and hasn't ever been that good. But almost everybody in Germany changes to winter tyres in November until just after Easter and manages to drive about even in wintery weather. What went wrong in the UK, I wonder
I don't know where you live in the UK, but is it really a good idea to change to winter tyres where you may get one or two days snow in the new year? Seems a little extreme in cost of buying them and paying someone to put them on when there is normally a higher chance of them not being needed?
I think it stems down to money, or should I say greedy, tight, stingy local authorities who wouldn't part with the steam off their own sh*te.
That's right - we all know that local authorities secretly have huge stashes of money, and the only reason they haven't gritted your street is because they enjoy pissing you off :rolleyes:
Simple fact it does not snow enough in the UK to justify spending billions snow clearing equipment, In Scandinavia Gemany and rusia, it snows every year from Nov-March so they have the infrastucture to deal with it, Here apart from the last two winters we normaly only get a couple of bad snow storms a year, so the expenditure can not be justified.
This. Precisely this.
It only happens for a few days every year for Christ's sake.
Yes cars have got stuck, but im sure that happens in ANY snowy country. Some people are being cautious staying off work, again people do the same in other countries if the conditions are deemed serious..The UK hasn't shut down
It only happens for a few days every year for Christ's sake.
That may be so for some parts of the country, but it is a major problem in parts of Scotland and the North East of England, and yet they seem no better prepared than say London, where it is a rare occurence.
I sort of think posts like this are justified for typical winters where we just get a couple of cm and everything grinds to a halt. But there's nearly a foot outside my house today in places, and being a country that hardly ever gets snow, there's no way we have the infrastructure to cope with that!
That may be so for some parts of the country, but it is a major problem in parts of Scotland and the North East of England, and yet they seem no better prepared than say London, where it is a rare occurence.
How do you prepare for 4 foot of snow?
The problem is, at least here, I have snow chains as do my neighbours but they are utterly useless if the snow becomes so deep that you can'rt drive through them
A lot of the roads here are winding small country roads and isolated routes surrounded by valleys so the snow drifts across the roads making them impassable.
The other problem is that Northumberland CC at least covers urban areas such as Blyth and Ashington to utterly desolate rural areas so it's hard for them to get the mix right
They've got a snow care team who ring vulnerable folk to check on them and in some cases we've got district nurses and home helps walking for 10 miles to get to people.
We've had people in Newcastle who work in shops sleeping in the shops as they can't get home.
I can't speak for elsewhere but the North East, which is used to snow, has had such severity that even the most prepared would most likely fail.
On a plus, a lot of schools are open after being closed since last Thursday but most have more teachers than kids
That may be so for some parts of the country, but it is a major problem in parts of Scotland and the North East of England, and yet they seem no better prepared than say London, where it is a rare occurence.
It's still pretty unusual in lowland parts of Scotland - we've got through some recent winters with no significant snow problems around Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Given that it's only the last couple of years where the weather has gotten worse, I do remember the winters of the 70's being snowier and it tailing off in the 80's though to the 00's. So, for me , most people have either forgotten how to prepare for a "Bad" snow spell or have never had to deal with a bad spell - hence the "Chaos".
Other European counties have colder & snowier winters as part of the course, so they are generally more equipped to deal with it unlike the UK where we rarely have protracted periods of snow & sub minus temperatures, this has been confirmed by the amount of idiot drivers as I have seen in the last few days - riding on peoples bumpers and trying to overtake on inclines because the vehicle in front is going slow (sensible driving in adverse weather), only to find themselves in an even worse predicament as the lose traction and side around.
No-one's addressing the mass cancellation of flights too. The runway can surely be ploughed and gritted, yet I heard apparently the planes were being frozen up so they were unsafe to fly or some bollocks. Does that mean every plane departing from Scandinavia, from Russia, from all the other places which are swamped in snow and deal with it perfectly fine are unsafe? This unprepared for it excuse is wearing a bit thin- fair enough last December when we got the 'big freeze', this year this nonsense was forecasted and the country should have been a lot more prepared, maybe not mass buying winter tyres but certainly not turning into the big shivering wreck that it has done.
That's right - we all know that local authorities secretly have huge stashes of money, and the only reason they haven't gritted your street is because they enjoy pissing you off :rolleyes:
Then perhaps the huge stashes of money that they had neatly tucked away in Icelandic banks whilst raking in the interest must of been a figure of my imagination.
It's not about gritting my street, it's about them not gritting the main roads. :rolleyes:
Does that mean every plane departing from Scandinavia, from Russia, from all the other places which are swamped in snow and deal with it perfectly fine are unsafe?
No, other countries' airports shut down too when the weather is really bad, especially if they run out of antifreeze!
Does that mean every plane departing from Scandinavia, from Russia, from all the other places which are swamped in snow and deal with it perfectly fine are unsafe?
Airports in those countries probably have loads of de-icer facilities. It also depends on the type of de-icer used, there are two types.
However don't think that the cold countries always get it right. A few planes have been brought down in the USA and Canada due to improper de-icing.
Then perhaps the huge stashes of money that they had neatly tucked away in Icelandic banks whilst raking in the interest must have been a figure of my imagination
What, do you really think councils keep reserve funds just so they can gloat over them? And what do you think the interest is used for?
I think it stems down to money, or should I say greedy, tight, stingy local authorities who wouldn't part with the steam off their own sh*te.
Every year we get the same tired old excuses. "There wasn't enough grit", "not enough money for grit", "we were caught unaware's by the weather" to name but a few. Expect the "lesson's will be learned" classic to be spat out by some scummy council jobsworth at some point. Only for all this to happen again between November and February next year.
You'd think these scumbags would think well ahead and have plans in place for all this instead of being more worried about lining their own pockets.
Every local authority, heck even the Government, should hang their heads in shame. I forgot you can't shame the shameless.
So how much extra council tax would you be willing to pay, just so that there are enough snowploughs and gritters on stanby for the couple of days harsh snow we get every few years ?
How much would you put into hurricane contingency, just in case ?
Comments
Who says it cannot be justified? - the bean counters, which is why the UK is never prepared for anything.
I don't know where you live in the UK, but is it really a good idea to change to winter tyres where you may get one or two days snow in the new year? Seems a little extreme in cost of buying them and paying someone to put them on when there is normally a higher chance of them not being needed?
That's right - we all know that local authorities secretly have huge stashes of money, and the only reason they haven't gritted your street is because they enjoy pissing you off :rolleyes:
This. Precisely this.
It only happens for a few days every year for Christ's sake.
Yes cars have got stuck, but im sure that happens in ANY snowy country. Some people are being cautious staying off work, again people do the same in other countries if the conditions are deemed serious..The UK hasn't shut down
That may be so for some parts of the country, but it is a major problem in parts of Scotland and the North East of England, and yet they seem no better prepared than say London, where it is a rare occurence.
How do you prepare for 4 foot of snow?
The problem is, at least here, I have snow chains as do my neighbours but they are utterly useless if the snow becomes so deep that you can'rt drive through them
A lot of the roads here are winding small country roads and isolated routes surrounded by valleys so the snow drifts across the roads making them impassable.
The other problem is that Northumberland CC at least covers urban areas such as Blyth and Ashington to utterly desolate rural areas so it's hard for them to get the mix right
They've got a snow care team who ring vulnerable folk to check on them and in some cases we've got district nurses and home helps walking for 10 miles to get to people.
We've had people in Newcastle who work in shops sleeping in the shops as they can't get home.
I can't speak for elsewhere but the North East, which is used to snow, has had such severity that even the most prepared would most likely fail.
On a plus, a lot of schools are open after being closed since last Thursday but most have more teachers than kids
It's still pretty unusual in lowland parts of Scotland - we've got through some recent winters with no significant snow problems around Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Other European counties have colder & snowier winters as part of the course, so they are generally more equipped to deal with it unlike the UK where we rarely have protracted periods of snow & sub minus temperatures, this has been confirmed by the amount of idiot drivers as I have seen in the last few days - riding on peoples bumpers and trying to overtake on inclines because the vehicle in front is going slow (sensible driving in adverse weather), only to find themselves in an even worse predicament as the lose traction and side around.
Then perhaps the huge stashes of money that they had neatly tucked away in Icelandic banks whilst raking in the interest must of been a figure of my imagination.
It's not about gritting my street, it's about them not gritting the main roads. :rolleyes:
No, other countries' airports shut down too when the weather is really bad, especially if they run out of antifreeze!
Airports in those countries probably have loads of de-icer facilities. It also depends on the type of de-icer used, there are two types.
However don't think that the cold countries always get it right. A few planes have been brought down in the USA and Canada due to improper de-icing.
What, do you really think councils keep reserve funds just so they can gloat over them? And what do you think the interest is used for?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,671186,00.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,732088,00.html
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20101201-31511.html
Not used for grit, thats for sure.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8489123.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8449906.stm
Moscow
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/traffic-chaos-moscow
Sweden
http://thatstoday.com/article/2926179/snow-chaos-expected-tuesday
Lol, wonder what OP has to say to that, seems Germany who are used to more snow than us aren't even coping in places.
Germany did not cope very well with the snow in Russia
Nor did the French.
So how much extra council tax would you be willing to pay, just so that there are enough snowploughs and gritters on stanby for the couple of days harsh snow we get every few years ?
How much would you put into hurricane contingency, just in case ?
They are still finding them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11868737
How dare you piss all over the OP's bonfire?!:mad::mad: