David Buttery wrote:
"Tudor Hughes" wrote in
ps.com:

How can you possibly blame them? We are not prepared for
snow because it simply isn't worth spending the money for something
that happens quite infrequently, especially these days.
snip

I thought about this. I saw in the paper the other day that Moscow employs
50,000 (sic) people to clear up after a big snowfall. Councils *could* buy
fleets more snowploughs, but would people all be prepared to pay the
council tax to afford them - or would people grumble about a waste of
taxpayers' money after three or four mild winters? I think we know the
answer to that one...

There used to be fleets of snowploughs/gritters - I remember walking
past a yard with dozens of them on my way to and from school. These days
there are hardly any away from the Motorways - politicians do not like
budgeting for anything that is only used occasionally. As you say, it costs.

On the other hand, the economic cost of perhaps 30% of people not
reporting to work at all, and an average of 1.5 hours loss of production
per person for those who do go to work must add up to quite a few
millions too.