Scottish transport minister resigns over travel chaos

[borderslass]

here

He's an excellent, respected and lovely MP who has been made a scapegoat. Such is political life

my street is priority one as has a fire station on it and the first plough arrived the day the fucking snow melted.

and it's easy to say, the householder should be responsible for their own part of pavement etc but what about people physically unable? i work at NHS24 (and had to walk to and from work in the middle of the sodding night) and had lots of calls from elderly men who had heart attacks and strokes after digging through 2 feet of snow to clear their paths/pavements.

It's the worst snow since 1963, everyone wants to blame someone. There's bugger all more he could have done.

That is shocking StewieGriffinsMom, I hope he is ok but two of the Perth Tesco's were a disgrace, really dangerous.

Crieff seems to be mainly older people and there are loads of residential homes or settlements for them - buses run from the homes into town every ten minutes because the hills are so steep. I think a lot of the elderly never got out for the best of a week.

I am forseeing many jollies 'fact finding trips' for parliament members soon. They will see how the Canadians and Scandinavians cope.
These winters are supposed to last for the next ten years according to the Scotsman.....

I just wonder how long the next one will last with the upcoming weather!

Pity to resign when he has at least had chance to learn (albeit the hard way)

So crackfox you are seriously suggesting that people like my husband should leave house at 6 am, walk a mile and a half uphill through thigh deep snow, spend, 2 and a half hours waiting on a freezing station platform, eventually get on a crowded train, work a full day in his extremely high pressured and demanding job, go through the whole rigmarole of the commute again, get home at 9pm freezing and starving, then head back out in the dark, with the temperature at minus double figures, then immediately go out and clear the
pavement? That would take him 3 hours. I take it you would permit him time to eat something, which would mean given the size of the area he would have to clear he might get finished at around 4 in the morning. Then have to leave the house again at 6. With respect,
that's ludicrous.

You say you live in leith. Having lived there for several years in the past, am guessing that you wouldn't have to clear too much pavement yourself.

It simply is not possible to draft fair legislation to oblige people to take responsibility for clearing the public footpath. Would you fancy iincurring civil liability for not having cleared properly/ in a reasonable time? Councils face actions like this all the time.

Tell him to avoid Crieff.

(glad he is ok though)

Oh arse . that looked like I was saying to Groskaka's man to avoid Crieff. It was for SGM...

Groska, no offense but you sound like a bit of a drama queen. Nit sure any main pavements had "thigh high" snow... Not unless your husband is a dwarf anyway.

Dont know anyone who has stayed in due to the risk of snow or icicles falling off the roof either. Life does go on you know...it's onlysnow.

I cleared our drive, pavement and the road to enable us to get onto the drive. I also helped several eldery neighbours, and pushed/dug out a couple of cars. Ds, who's 3.5 either stayed where it was warm, but I could still see him, or he came out and halped/played in the car.

kitten any ideas how bad it's going to be thurs/friday?

I'm supposed to be go to the borders (peebles) for a work do on Thursday night.....

I think heavy snow is forecast for Thursday and Friday geordieminx but I hope I'm wrong.

BBC is saying light snow, but hey they couldn't predict yesterdays weather [ grin]

Eh, I have a 5 month old to look after, and a preschooler.
After the first day or 2 my buggy was unusable, and the snow was up to my eldest's waist. Maybe I should have left them in the house on their own while I headed out into the snow, shovel in hand?

As for paying someone to do it, I do: the council. It certainly wouldn't have been possible to find anyone else to do it, who could I have asked? The roads were impassable. If the councils were so stuck for manpower to clear the streets that they had to call in the army I am not going to have much luck finding anyone am I?

BadKitten's forecast for Thursday

We are going to get graupel....

There were loads of adverts in local newsagents for people willing to clear snow. My elderly parents had 3 teens round who cleared their drive for £4

Last year I did ours with 1yo DD asleep in the buggy and my 3yo helping with a plastic spade. You are being ever so precious Grosaka

You could have taken half an hour or so to do it while your DH was home (what I did), or asked somebody else.

Groska How big is your house if the pavement outside would take your husband 3 hours to clear????

I am sure if the Scottish Government brought in this law (which I think they should) there would be enterprising teenagers or companies you could pay to do this for you.

For information, my DH left the house at 6am, took 3 hours to get to work in a van with no heater, worked in a freezing cold empty house on a building site which did have thigh high snow, took another 3 hours to get home, had a bite to eat and cleared our pavement in the dark (street light not working) - it is surprisingly easy to get the snow and ice up once you break it up and you keep on top of it before the next snow comes.

mozette, in south queensferry it took 3 hours just to dig my car out.

maybe we were lucky cos we cleared it after the first snow and kept on top of it - we do now however have a snow mountain in our drive which doesn't look like its going to melt anytime soon.