Winter weather

The Echo’s superb efforts at keeping us informed about road conditions, providing very accurate weather reports, almost instant road closure and accident reports, school closures, helplines, and news stories – through its wonderful website service and in print – has been truly first class. We would have been in a real mess without the by-the-minute updates.

I would also like to express my gratitude to those very hard-working council and highways staff for keeping our roads passable and our bus and train drivers for making that extra effort. Heck, even our binmen were spotted helping old folk and spreading salt by hand.

Even our postie has been getting through and he’s still wearing his shorts.

Naturally, I must include the fabulous efforts of the emergency services for also going that extra mile. All too often we complain about them, but in times like this their true strength shows through.

Again, thanks to all doing their bit for the community.

Steve Day, Fishburn, Co Durham.

I WAS very disappointed to read – both on The Northern Echo’s website and in print (Echo, Jan 7) – the narrow-minded comments of some of your readers regarding school closures.

Both my daughter and daughter-in-law are teachers, in different parts of the country, and have both driven in very difficult conditions to get to their respective schools during this bad weather.

My daughter’s school was closed to pupils last Monday, but the teachers were on site for the entire working day.

On Wednesday, she made it to school only for it to be closed at 11am. However, she needed her car to be dug/pushed out of heavy snow in the surrounding streets three times before she could get home.

For some readers to suggest that teachers are idle is quite frankly offensive and they are obviously oblivious to the amount of work teachers do before and after the working school day, at weekends and in holidays, though I appreciate that this is true of many other workers.

Also, it should be noted that they do not get paid if they are simply “snow shows” and in this current economic climate very few people can afford to lose pay by simply not turning up to work.

Jane Dixon, Darlington.

I WAS 19 in 1963 and remember well the most horrific of winters that turned out to be the worst since 1740 (Echo, Jan 5) with a huge snowfall of about a foot in early January that packed down to nearly nine inches and then froze solid for almost three months.

There was huge disruption in all walks of life and football and rugby stopped for a very long time. I had a new Morris 1000 Traveller at that time and kept a hundredweight sack of coal in the back to give the wheels a better grip.

The snow lasted for ages and got blacker and blacker as the weeks went by. The last drifts up Houghton Cut were still there in May and the snow was coal black.

The temperatures were really low until almost April when there was a really quick thaw which caused severe flooding in Durham with the River Wear covering the Racecourse.

I know this as I had to wade through the flood to get to the Racecourse squash courts.

Happy days...

Malcolm Rolling, Carrville, Durham.

THE present winter weather reminds me of February/March 1947 when the whole country was snow and frostbound. I was sent on indefinite RAF sick leave, with sciatica, lasting six weeks as sick bay wards were closed to save fuel.

There was a nationwide shortage of fuel due to road conditions and increased demand for coal and coke. York lads queued at the gas works every day for a bogy full of coke.

I had been among them in earlier years – 3d and 6d depending on the size of your bogy.

This winter is similar. The local council is stretched to the limit and doing the best it can.

We get on with it as best we can and are lucky to have good neighbours when we need help.

When things get tough the old spirit is still alive. We are thankful for good neighbours.

George Appleby, Clifton, York.