In some countries, when people wake up, open the curtains and see fresh snow on the pavement, they go outside and sweep or shovel the snow into the gutter.

If everyone does this for their own housefront or shopfront, the pavements will remain passable since there is no snow to melt and then freeze over.

The council can clear the snow piles from the roadside.

No one need fall down and break a bone.

What was most remarkable about last weekend in Brighton was that probably less than one householder or shopkeeper in 100 cleared the snow outside their properties. It seems people just peered outside and thought that it was the council’s job.

When the snow was fresh, it would have taken ten minutes to clear. The price paid for everyone doing nothing was hundreds of people in A&E.

Trevor Pateman
Western Road, Brighton