Letter: Weather chaos

Apparently there is a shortage of salt for treating roads in Scotland and northern Europe. Rather than relying on the single salt mine in Cheshire, perhaps it is time for some lateral thinking.

Britain has a great advantage over continental Europe, because it has hundreds of miles of coastline. Much of this has nice salty sand, some of which could surely be used on the roads.

Then there is the sea water itself, some of which could be evaporated, as was once done at the salt pans in Fife, to extract the salt.

As we are already importing boatloads of salt from afar, perhaps in future we should have arrangements with countries using desalination plants to produce fresh water. What happens to the extracted salt; is it simply an unwanted waste product? There are surely possibilities there; the other countries need the water, we need the salt.

Finally, I recall from school chemistry lessons when we made salt in the lab by mixing sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) and hydrochloric acid and then evaporating the water. Hydrochloric acid is a waste product in many chemical processes; if caustic soda is also widely available, maybe we could use these resources to manufacture salt.

Jane Ann Liston

Largo Road

St Andrews

It is clear local councils do not have the financial resources to beat the weather conditions. What about diverting some of the UK defence budget to defend the British people on home soil against the hostilities of snow, ice and freezing temperatures?

Even Napoleon had to admit that the two greatest enemies of his military career were General Winter and Marshal Frost.

Jennifer Shearer

Cargilfield View

Edinburgh

In the light of the many complaints about lack of gritting, snow ploughs and information, it would be interesting to know how many of the complainants voted in the last election for a party committed to reducing the state and the services it provides.

It seems to me that many of us have got exactly what we voted for. This is only the beginning.

Trevor Rigg

Greenbank Gardens

Edinburgh

Gordon Casely (Letters, 18 December) fails to acknowledge that this bout of winter weather is the harshest we have had for more than 30 years. All UK train operators from Caithness to Cornwall are experiencing unprecedented cancellations and curtailments. Even the flagship HST125 London/Stirling/Inverness has failed to make it during this weather.

ScotRail, like any dynamic company, may occasionally disappoint the passenger, but it always provides a hot trolley service, unlike other operators serving Aberdeen and Glasgow.

Most transport-related shares have seen rises in recent years. First Group is not alone.

Scottish travellers have shown their faith in ScotRail, as any commuter or leisure traveller will observe, as passenger numbers have risen from 50 million to 76 million in the 12 years since privatisation.

Colin C Maclean

Hillpark Avenue

Edinburgh