Swaffham: It's snow joke in the town centre
SNOW was falling steadily at the beginning of this week and more was forecast over the next few days. There was talk of it being the worst conditions in 20 years.
As I sat down to write this column I found myself thinking about snow clearance around the town centre. Easy, you might think! The men from the council will do it. But which council?
I rang Breckland to ask. The lady who answered the phone was very quick to say the county council would clear the roads.
"Ah!", says I. "I was thinking about the pavements and parking areas around the edge and then there's the car park in the middle. Who looks after that?" That stumped her. She was very polite. She said she would find someone who could help and put me on hold.
A few minutes later, another lady came on the line. She asked if she could take my number and ring back. "It's rather busy here, this morning." she explained.
You might think this tale is going to turn into a rant about the council, but it's not! True to her word, in less than an hour, a man rang, with apologies, but he'd only just got in from Swaffham.
I explained why I had rung and he started by saying that the Market Place was Breckland's responsibility. He listened carefully, too. When I read back my note, to make sure I understood, he corrected me, saying that they don't do snow clearance. All they do is salt the area.
As to the periphery, he wasn't sure. It might be the county or the town council. The footpaths he thought would be the county.
Then he added that some footpaths would be Breckland's, those outside sheltered housing schemes, for example.
Having said, the town council could be responsible for some areas, he didn't actually suggest any. I don't blame him for that. You can't expect to know what others are responsible for.
However, after I put the phone down, I worried about "salt, not snow clearance". What happens if it really is bad, and salt alone doesn't do the trick. I had a slapstick moment imagining county council snow ploughs throwing snow from the roads onto the car parks, and Breckland Council workers throwing it all back again.
Suddenly the Boundary Committee proposal for a single council for the whole county, a "unitary authority" to use the jargon, didn't look so bad. Given the forecasts, I wonder if I'll still be thinking that, when you read this.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -5 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
