Notts County Council tells residents to buy their own salt and grit for winter

“No, you are smshogun.

Ah, there we are... normal service has been resumed!”

“Formerly is buying the beer.”

“Holy Moley! FormelyW and Smshogun are in agreement......I trust you two gentleman will resume normal services soon....The two of you agreeing just doesn't seem right somehow ;-)”

“Ok smshogun and FormerlyW, I get your points and to be fair I'd agree, however when I lived in a West London many years back, I remember the council actively discouraging residents from clearing paths outside their houses siting various reasons for why it'd be potentially dangerous. Granted I doubt anyone ever got sued but it is a worry. The year before last I lived in an area of north Nottinghamshire which got heavily hit by snow and some cleared the footpaths outside their houses, some didn't, and the parts of the paths cleared became more treacherous for those folk unsteady on their pins than the bits that weren't cleared. Sadly I remember when the council employed people to clear paths, especially in shopping areas but equally in a lot of residential areas. Now they don't, blaming cut-backs etc., then chucking money at things that really shouldn't (in my opinion) be priority.”

“This "advice" is either redundant and patronising (if he's advising us to salt/grit areas on private property), or bonkers (if he's advising us to salt/grit public areas, e.g. pavements and streets).”

“Coming from the MIdwest of the US, where winters are longer, snowier, colder and just generally worse than they are here in the UK - it's common practice for people to buy their own salt/grit and to shovel their own walks when they can. Consider it this way - if you're not shovelling the walk outside of your house, you may be freeing yourself from liability (an untrue rumour - as long as the path is cleared properly: http://tinyurl.com/bwndymn), but it can also be incredibly dangerous NOT to shovel/grit - for you and for others.”

“Agreeing with smshogun on a point of law; now that's a worry!”

“"if we treat the paths and/or road outside our houses and make a bad job of it, then someone gets hurt, we'll get sued." --- thing

This is an often-repeated statement, yet strangely no-one can ever point to a case where someone has been sued. Here's someone who had a go at finding any cases and found there aren't any: http://tinyurl.com/d8gh63u

And actually, surely there are circumstances in which people should be sued such a case. Suppose, for example, you chose to clear the snow away using a pressure washer, thus leaving a thin film of water that froze to black ice. If you did something that stupid, shouldn't you be held responsible for it?

In the meantime, though, it's just a fun "it's health and safety gone mad" thing to pick on if you like blaming "them" for everything that is wrong with the World, without all the fuss and bother of asking who "they" are.”

“Is the County Council going to knock a few pounds of the council tax bill ?”

“It's my understanding that if a householder does anything to remove snow from their property, i.e. sweeps it; sands it or salts it...and someone has an accident... the householder is accountable for interfering in the natural phenomena.
If I'm correct in this legal position, will Notts. County Council allow anyone assisting them in their request, to utilise their public liability insurance to off-set any subsequent insurance claims?
Just wondering?”