Snow Sanity!

I walked to school today with the children. We were looking at Solihull Council's website until it was time to go. No "closure agenda" on for us. So we walked to school, but as we got nearer there were parents telling us that the schools were just shutting up shop. I walked on to find out the reality of it all.

One of the schools was actually open, technically, but "it was up to parents to decide whether they wanted their children to stay". The general gist of all this is that the chief executive had passed the responsibility for decision making onto the headteachers who were then left to impart to the assembled parents/carers/guardians that the final decision was theirs.

I'm not sure if I'm angry, sad or just bemused. We all walked or got there despite the snow. In fact everyone I spoke to thought there was no problem. However, the assumption is that snow is problematic. I can assure you that it is not so in Solihull today. We have a chief executive who appears to see snow as an automatic reason to close schools regardless. The assumption is that teachers cannot get in. They are the only ones in the workforce with this pre-existing difficulty. But I would have thought that, as a precautionary measure, teachers are asked whether they can get in if there is snow, so alternative arrangements can be made. (Always assuming that the roads are gritted, etc).

It is said that the playgrounds are unsafe for the children (for health and safety reasons) but not a finger has been lifted to clear them of snow. Independent schools carry on as normal, so why should the local education authorities think they are any different? If these chief executives cared about health and safety they would clear the snow from the playgrounds.

Now a sense of proportion would be nice, but I doubt that that is possible. If we have blizzards and everything generally resembles the Arctic, then nobody would or should demure from proaction. But it seems the chief executive works from closures first and then hopes that Mother Nature will bail him out. All the local government chief executives have been mumbling about snow and how this curse has suddenly afflicted them, rather like the Lady of Chalot. But an elementary geography lesson would tell them that wintry conditions like these are not a rarity in Britain. So no forward planning, no contingency arrangements, just a rough idea that things will get better if the sun shines! They are squabbling about salt and gritting supplies. Luckily Solihull has plenty, so the website tells us, but not enough for the schools to stay open apparently.

So what have I learned from all this? I think -

1. That local authorities close first in order to save money and have an easy life.
2. That nobody asks teachers if they would have any problems getting in should there be snow.
3. That independent schools generally take the opposite approach.
4. That playgrounds are deemed unimportant for snow clearance.
5. That there is no forward planning, or any that merits much attention.
6. That buckpassing is generally to be expected.

If we do not change our attitudes to this, then next winter will bring the same nonsense. Children are understanding that this is how it is. "My hands are tied!", is one thing they've heard. All we get is a vague "apology" - "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this will cause".

Britain cannot cope with drought, with floods or with snow. The reason - because of underfunding and a propensity for washing of hands by those "in charge". They take the shilling but fail on the delivery.

Fun time in the snow!

We did have some fun time in the snow this afternoon. I say in the snow, but it was more on a couple of inches of the stuff. Masses of people in Elmdon Park, Solihull toboganning down the hills. Lots of people walking about. Quite easy, actually.

I get back to see that the BBC is talking of "transport chaos warning over snow" and various other apocolyptic warnings about what snow can do. It's this sort of loose talk that befuddles the minds of local government chief executives.

Solihull roads were well-gritted today, but not enough for the teachers, who had all decided to take the day off, encouraged by their superiors. Salt levels are dangerously low, though. Paul Bettison of the Local Government Association told the BBC's Today programme that the UK should look to importing fresh supplies of salt. "That requires government to actually work with us all, and then we can do it as one - rather than, as we've seen, having this scrapping for what limited supplies are available," he said. Scrapping around is third world stuff. Surely they could anticipate that during an English winter the possibility of snow is more than likely.

I am amazed that people on high salaries have a very poor understanding of simple project management. It seems that unless they get a grip we will have all this on a year on year basis. Nothing learned, nothing gained!

Strange but true?

I think this is strange and I'm wondering if it is true. I heard on the radio that Salt Union is the biggest supplier of salt to local authorities and the Highways Agency. So I looked them up on the internet (as you do!). What did I find?

Salt Union trumpets loud and clear that they are "They only winter maintenance service worth its salt", so you'd expect them to be prepared, know about salt and everything. Nice wintry scenes on the video!

However, hidden away in the News section is this gem -

"Salt Union is using every means possible and taking extraordinary measures to meet the current need for salt. We have been operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week since the beginning of January and are extracting 30,000 tonnes per week but the unexpected and unusual weather means that even working at this level, demand is outstripping supply."

Unexpected and unusual weather? What is the purpose of being the only winter maintenance service worth its salt if snow is an unexpected consequence of winter?

Anybody out there coming to our aid yet?

It snowed! Brum shuts down!

With an alacrity unknown elsewhere in the Universe, the school system goes into freefall in a sympathy action with the snowfall. Shut the schools, they screech. Let's add to the economic woes by causing more days off work. Educate by example. Show the children how you can really mess up an economy.

As with last year, Birmingham City Council along with my local council, Solihull "Metropolitan" Borough Council, have decided all schools will shut today, Tuesday. They will help the country lose over £1 BILLION pounds in lost production just today.

I can quite easily walk to school right now. In fact better than yesterday. However, the perceived wisdom, or insanity actually, is that it is unsafe to go to school. It is, on the other hand perfectly safe for children to be let out of school to wander the streets "having fun".

Yesterday lunchtime I was alerted to the fact that children were "being let go early" by a neighbour's child knocking on the door. We were not told formally by the school. I decided not to break with my routine and our son was picked up normally. Had he been in lessons? No, he had been watching a film, because there were only three of them left. I really feel the education establishment should get a grip and realise that snow is not a blanket problem. Our school is not a village school. I can readily understand that if a school is cut off by drifting snow, it would be ridiculous to attempt to push on regardless. But this is just hands up we can't cope stuff.

To the education chiefs of Birmingham and Solihull et al. You really are the least likely to get us out of this economic mess. We need people with brains in their heads not in their........!!!