Do we make too much fuss about bad weather?

WHEN I was a lad and it snowed, we used to struggle to get to school just to make slides as long as the playground. Now if inclement weather is predicted, schools are closed and trains are cancelled ‘just in case’. Thanks to health and safety legislation and claims lawyers, industry has to spend an inordinate amount of time on risk assessments, producing policies and ensuring there is a paper trail that will hold up in court. And we wonder why productivity is down.

R. SPREADBURY, Liversedge, W. Yorks. MY FRIENDS in Canada have been laughing their heads off at the upset a few days of snow has caused Britain. They have to cope for months with extreme weather. In the harsh winter of 1963 when the Thames froze over thick enough for people to walk across it, we had harsh conditions for three months. The trains still ran and children went to school.

TED SHEPHERD, Windsor, Berks. THE Met Office is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t give us severe weather warnings.

JOAN FROST, Peterborough, Cambs. THE local school was closed for health and safety reasons, so I was surprised to see parents had taken the day off work to go sledging with their children.

CHRIS PRITCHETT, Hucknall, Notts. SCHOOLS closed, no gritting lorries in sight, but thanks to Chris our paper boy, the Daily Mail has continued to land on my doormat at 7.30am sharp.

NEVILLE BALMER, Sicklinghall, N. Yorks. HOW many trains are cancelled in Russia or Switzerland in the winter? We even had cancellations due to ‘no snow’ when the Met Office warnings proved premature.

MIKE CATTERALL, Accrington, Lancs. DURING the big freeze of 1963, I was a 16-year-old fireman on steam engines. One week I spent every night de-icing the points all around the station, and with overtime and working on a Sunday I was paid 18 shillings for 96 hours. I thought I was a millionaire! Despite snowdrifts, no trains were cancelled. GRAHAM WILLIAMS, Cardiff.