Cold snap brings out Leicestershire's rural spirit

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has praised Leicestershire’s rural communities for working together during the adverse weather conditions.

CLA access expert, Andrew Shirley, who works from the rural organisation’s Market Harborough bureau, said: "We have all managed to get through to work, but it has sometimes needed the help of a shovel or tractor. Much has been said about the lack of gritting on country roads, but let’s recognise the efforts that rural folk have made to keep roads open and in helping supplies reach their destination.

"This weather is causing problems for everyone, but farmers have to turn out no matter how severe the conditions. They have to find, feed and water stock, and routine jobs are taking far longer. Despite this extra pressure and significant risk to themselves, they still turn out to help - stranded strangers as well as neighbours, and many a desperate motorist will think twice before moaning about tractors on the road in future."

Meanwhile, Tim Barnes-Clay, the rural watchdog’s motoring correspondent, said: "Living in rural communities off the beaten track can be seen as an idyllic existence, yet there are serious problems when snow, such as we have had in the last week, hits us. Even though the milk tankers and the postal officers get through to collect and deliver each day, it is tough on the hundreds of small businesses dotted around small market towns and villages within rural counties like Leicestershire."