Poor example
Page 57
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I THINK the London boroughs must have been concentrating on praying for a quick thaw to get the snow away from the roads. There was little being done constructively in that part of the country to make conditions easier for traffic and pedestrians when even four days after the fall most roads not heavily used were still in a sorry state.
Little or no action was taken by local authorities to clear, grit or salt the secondary roads which are none the less well used even if only by cars and lighter goods vehicles. This added considerably to the congestion on the main arteries to which many were driven when things started to get back to normal.
Not a very good example for the capital to give and, in fact, authorities elsewhere seem to have got down much more quickly and effectively to the work of snow clearance. A colleague who was in Birmingham the day after the "disaster" occurred tells how the whole of that built-up area teemed with men and equipment. They cleared up the mess so effectively that by late afternoon areas such as Kings Norton were very nearly back to normal.