-    Airports, schools, roads closed because of 5-10cm of snow

-    M25 a “car park” speeds drop to 1mph

Editorial

London again is struggling to cope with extreme weather with the news that Gatwick airport has been forced to close its runways until 6am Thursday 2 December, over a hundred schools in the capital have closed, and the M25 was a "car park" today because of black ice.

Weather warnings had been issued by the Met Office that heavy snow was on its way over two weeks ago; it was the responsibility of the relevant local authorities to prepare and have snow ploughs, gritters in place to deal with the weather and keep roads, schools open.

Instead today we have seen scenes from a "third world" country, roads closed, motorways not safe to drive on, trains delayed or cancelled and Gatwick airport shut.  We need some kind of central command centre that will operate throughout the day and night across the capital with a team that can allocate resources in areas that have been particularly affected by the adverse weather.  The Government should appoint a group working with City Hall to keep the engine of the UK economy operating even if we have blizzards or -20c as the Express keeps claiming on its front pages.

Its just not good enough to see thousands of motorists stranded on the M25, and the Highways Agency reactively dealing with the problems.  

photo credit: Twitpic (lukevenon)