The Big Freeze

We are big fans of Fred, Fred Talbot that is. For those of you not familiar with Fred, he's one of the Granada weather men on ITV. In fact he seems to be one of the oldest serving weather men (no ageism on ITV) and each night Fred “hopes we all sleep well, because we deserve it” .
Well, Fred wished us well on the night of the 21st of December 2009 and warned there a might be some snow that night.
The heaviest fall of snow in over a decade, four inches, fell on the Fylde coast overnight and despite gritters working round the clock many town centres across Fylde and Wyre were turned into ice rinks.
Minor roads became impassible despite good efforts to keep key routes gritted and open and a layer of untreated snow lay on all the pavements and the majority of side roads.
The Christmas and New Year four day holiday passed and after a combination of compression (due to footfall and vehicles) and a slight thaw, the untreated surfaces were ready for the evening of the 5th of January when Fred warned us again and a further three inches of snow fell over the Fylde coast.
This turned roads and pavements from being marginally accessible to totally impossible.
Forty schools closed, shopping centres were inaccessible, despite main routes being gritted, minor routes remained untreated. The Ambulance Service declared a major incident due to the overwhelming level of calls coupled with the difficulty of getting vehicles to call outs.
By the 7th of January grit and salt supplies were getting low and this situation continued until the slow thaw began around the middle of January.
Overall, many residents of Fylde and Wyre experienced a month of initially finding it difficult and eventually finding it impossible to leave their home or, if they did, finding themselves unable to go anywhere on foot.

Nationally, there was a three fold increase in the number of patients with injuries caused by slips, trips and falls due to the ice. Leicester Royal treated 2,500 people for broken bones compared to forty the previous year.
Lancashire hospitals appealed for patients to return unused zimmer frames after a spate of leg injuries and were running out of plaster to make casts for broken limbs. There was a marked rise in admissions of elderly people with underlying conditions exacerbated by the freezing conditions.

There were also some very positive experiences in Fylde and Wyre.
The twelve year old Collegiate High School pupil who scaled a 6 ft fence at night to help a 57 year old lady who had fallen outside her home and lay calling for help for thirty minutes at.
The Kirkham retailer who, after witnessing nine people slip and fall ( including an elderly pensioner who had to be hospitalised) called Kirkham prison, ordered some grit from a builders merchants, which the prisoners picked up and set to work gritting and clearing.
The two Poulton Police officers who saved a 63 year old man missing for ten hours in sub zero temperatures. They found him suffering from hypothermia and saved his life.
However, consultation within the forum, and which is backed up by the national experience, showed that the three most important concerns highlighted by older people were:
- A dramatic reduction in mobility
- A strong sense of isolation
- Both compounded by a lack of neighbourliness.

In anticipation of another cold snap forum members helped to organise and participated in a conference hosted by Wyre Borough Council involving twenty organisations from across Wyre and Fylde. They focused on what could be done to minimise these experiences happening again and the key outcomes are summarised as follows.
The biggest issue was public concern about the legal implications of clearing paths, drives and pavements without fear of reprisal or legal action.
There was confusion about who is responsible for clearing and gritting paths and pavements.
Residents need advice and information earlier in order to be well prepared for such an event rather than suddenly distributing information as the snow falls.
How do we target the most vulnerable groups particularly those who aren’t known to social services?
Anecdotally, there seemed to be more neighbourliness in rural villages than larger towns.
The importance of having one point of contact and referral.
How can we better coordinate resources and equipment from partner organisations?
Further work is now underway on all of these topics and will deliver answers well before the winter weather returns.