I live in a village, on a steep slope. I cannot get my car out as the road is a steep sheet of ice. Cars are sliding all over the place. The pavements are worse so I cannot go out on foot. I am totally cut off except for phone and email. These roads are never gritted, as the Council has just informed me. The ice cannot be dug - hard and compacted. And, I am waiting for our usual annual busted water-main - same problem every time the temperature goes this low - it bursts in the same place, and half the village will be without water for a day or more. And this is supposed to be a civilised country in the 21st century.