The headline on the front of one of today’s newspapers is that only 1 in 10 workers made it into work yesterday. 14 out of my team of 28 actually made it into the office, with a further 3 managing to work from home, so I think we did very well. Unfortunately the rest of the firm didn’t do so well which meant yesterday was rather challenging, as it was for many local employers and businesses.
Stephensons of course weren’t the only ones suffering, and walking around our town centre in Leigh at 3.30pm yesterday I discovered many of the shops closed, along with all the banks and building societies. It really was something of a ghost town.
The impact of the snow was felt right across the borough, with most of the schools closed, making my 2 boys very happy, their first day back in the New Year being postponed by one day at least. The strain on our local infrastructure was immense (roads, hospitals, police, ambulance services, etc) and we have to be fair to our local Council, who did what they could in such difficult circumstances.
I’m not sure what else, if anything could have been done, and moving forward over the next few days we will all have to take a sensible and realistic approach as many day to day things are inevitably going to be severely disrupted as a result of this prolonged severe weather.
It’s also worth taking a minute to think about others who may be really struggling in this weather, old people for instance, or people who are housebound. Do you have such a neighbour, would they appreciate a knock on the door?
It’s all too easy when things are tough to simply worry about ourselves, and forget others, but I’m sure that whilst some of us love the snow (mostly the children), and the rest of us deal with it, there are others to whom it is almost life threatening, and it would do well for us to think of those and help were we can.
It’s also a prime time for accidents, and our phones have been ringing off with enquiries. Many accidents are exactly that, and are simply down to this severe inclement weather. If however you have had an accident and wonder if you could receive some compensation for it, contact our Personal Injury solicitors, we would be happy to have a chat.
Take care until next time.
By Kate Sweeney