Get Ready For Snow!

If you live outside of London you may well have already been hit by snow, thankfully in Crystal Palace it hasn't arrived yet, even though we are one of the highest points in London we should still be expecting a light coating of the white stuff, if we are to believe what the weather forecasters tell us.

In Yorkshire and Northumberland approximately 6 inches of snow brought chaos to the rural roads at rush hour earlier this week and the snow clouds are heading south, but if we are also to believe what the news tells us, this time councils have prepared for the 'cold snap', so as to avoid the lunacy of the standstill created by February 2009's infamous snowfall. We shall see...

In Lewisham the council do not provide salt bins for residential use, due to frequently being vandalised by young people, which is ridiculously inconvenient seeing as these are the roads worst affected by snow and prove extremely difficult for both drivers and pedestrians to get out of, also frustratingly so plans to start gritting roads don't start till early December. While in Bromley work is already underway to prepare for the impending snowfall and gritting crews were called into action for the first time last week as temperatures plummeted to freezing. Executive Councillor for Environment, Colin Smith, says:

"We’ve invested in an enlarged Salt Barn and increased our salt stocks by 50% over last year and as a result we've fared relatively well over the past few years compared to other Boroughs."

Some councils are even offering bags of salt to residents in parts badly affected by the snow, which is a brilliant idea and one I would like to see carried out across London as a whole.

How are you planning to avoid commuter madness this winter?

Photo: Charlotte Gilhooly