The Big Freeze - Friend or Foe? (From Wandsworth Guardian)

The Big Freeze - Friend or Foe?

9:26pm Wednesday 27th January 2010

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By Community Correspondent William Dyson At the beginning of this month, the UK saw adverse weather condition comparable to those in 1963. Traffic was chaos, schools were closed and we, as us Londoners usually do, put our lives on hold to watch the normally mundane concrete jungle transform into a fluffy white fantasy land. Please don’t mistake my pure love of snow for cynical sarcasm, because no matter how disrupted our lives become, snow is a very wonderful marvel.

In Wandsworth, several schools were closed and major roads disrupted. As some drag themselves in for exams, others enjoyed the delights of the fresh snow. However, is there something sinister hidden behind the thick white vale of apparent joy. Was enough done to prevent these dangers?

For days after the snow fun had gone, our pavements were covered with ice and roads left deteriorating after thawing snow. Suddenly, the picture isn’t quite so pretty. Councils have to deal with these negative effects as we all try to get on with our daily lives.

At the moment, some of the roads in the Southfields area of Wandsworth are being resurfaced. Whether this is a response to the damage caused by the weather or not, the roads were certainly in need of this. This kind of repair work is clearly not cheap and requires a lot of effort as well as disruption. One can’t help but wonder where that effort would have gone if the council had not had to spend it on repair work. Education? Health care? Crime prevention?

Ice on the pavements is another issue. Not only is it a danger to people, it is also another cost on the council’s part. Many people were in need to medical attention as a result of ice related incidents. This put pressure on the medical staff and facilities in the borough.

Finally, the impact on businesses. With the disruption of transport networks across Wandsworth, many were not able to make it into work, and people were not making use of shops and other local facilities. This had negative effects on businesses.

Sounding a little more cynical than intended, I am saying that the snow may seem like a positive thing, and it is to an extent, but the council and local businesses may have preferred a slightly different forecast for the beginning of the new decade.

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