Misfits, Dad's Army Types et al...

[AstonZagato]

My wife is a doctor and the clinical lead for her trust. She got a call from staffing to say that one of the nurses couldn't get in due to the snow. We have three cars with four wheel drive, so I suggested that I could go and get her. (yeah, give me a medal). My wife gave me a look and said "You've been out there. The roads are clear. She just wants a snow day."

[anonymous-user]

p4cks said:

They'll be fking reveling in it.

That's the unfortunate thing.
True, there have been hundreds/thousands of 4x4s put to very good use with some stirling voluntary efforts, most of them without all the song and dance and faux-drama of the Walts.
It kinda puts things in perspective.

[egor110]

ApOrbital said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-4327...

It is pretty bad up there .

We've had local ordinary people ( not walts) giving people lifts to the hospitals or driving doctors around , these people are builders or landscape gardeners who obviously can't work so making use of there pick ups .

[anonymous-user]

I've had a few mates out helping as they have 4X4's and relevant skills.

There is a world of difference between them and some of the Walt's mentioned previously in here though

My mates certainly weren't sleeping with one eye open and didn't immediately cover their cars in beacons and battenburg

[Zedboy]

Fabulous Walt Vs Public Vs Trolls blog on Kent news today ... Seems like they all knackered their old Fronteras and 20+ yr old Landies for an ungrateful and perplexed public.... I’m waiting for the GoFundMe next.... grab industrial quantities of popcorn and enjoy chaps.... https://goo.gl/cf8hnu

[Willy Nilly]

Walt said:

“I’ve probably got about £1,000 damage to my truck all for saving people all over Kent.

Isn't that part and parcel or running an old Land Rover?

[anonymous-user]

Proof they don't know what they're doing and don't know the capabilities of their own vehicles.
The genuinely helpful ones have provided essential transport for hospital staff and the like and in doing that there is absolutely no way any 4x4 would sustain any damage.
Anyone who says they suffered "thousands of pounds of damage" isn't quite the expert driver they tell everyone they are.
Nail hit squarely on head by one contributor:
"It would appear to me that their enthusiasm far outweighs the ability of their vehicles.
Reliability has been overlooked in favour of adding spotlights, winches & wide wheels purely for appearance"

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 4th March 15:51

[helix402]

Walt Wagon deluxe:

[Toyoda]

p4cks said:

They'll be fking reveling in it.

There's a great post on Facebook where one said Walt has written an open "letter" to the ministry of transport explaining how much of an unsung hero his and his ilk are, don't want any praise though, just some tax breaks and people to sign his petition.

[anonymous-user]

Toyoda said:

There's a great post on Facebook where one said Walt has written an open "letter" to the ministry of transport explaining how much of an unsung hero his and his ilk are, don't want any praise though, just some tax breaks and people to sign his petition.

That's dave the breakfast stain cb operating hero.

[egor110]

Toyoda said:

p4cks said:

They'll be fking reveling in it.

There's a great post on Facebook where one said Walt has written an open "letter" to the ministry of transport explaining how much of an unsung hero his and his ilk are, don't want any praise though, just some tax breaks and people to sign his petition.

That's not quite what he wrote was it , more like the government want to tax diesel 4x4's off the road so in the future exactly how are the nurses/doctors going to get around .

[citizensm1th]

egor110 said:

Toyoda said:

p4cks said:

They'll be fking reveling in it.

There's a great post on Facebook where one said Walt has written an open "letter" to the ministry of transport explaining how much of an unsung hero his and his ilk are, don't want any praise though, just some tax breaks and people to sign his petition.

That's not quite what he wrote was it , more like the government want to tax diesel 4x4's off the road so in the future exactly how are the nurses/doctors going to get around .

Well they could stop being tight arses and by petrol 4x4's (the walts not the medics)

[Willy Nilly]

I saw a Subaru Forester drive past my house on Thursday. On the tow loop was a snapped bit of rope and the whole driver side was dented to buggery and the door mirror hanging off. I suspect the hero driver was towing people in the snow and suffered some damage to his steed.

[anonymous-user]

Willy Nilly said:

I saw a Subaru Forester drive past my house on Thursday. On the tow loop was a snapped bit of rope and the whole driver side was dented to buggery and the door mirror hanging off.

Bearing in mind a lot of gamekeeping and groundsmen types drive Foresters it's probably been like that a while. Entirely normal.

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 4th March 19:35

[LordJammy]

Round my local area I have seen no Walts out walting, no hi viz and weak lemon squash waiting patiently In a shabby Discovery, standing sentinel against the worst weather the county has seen for a very very long time.
What there has been though, is hundreds of farmers out in their tractors and farm vehicles clearing roads and dragging people out of harms way and the lads from the Toyota dealership taking nurses and patients to Hospital.
Must not have been serious enough for a stage 5 tango niner code Bovril alarm.

[Willy Nilly]

Crossflow Kid said:

Willy Nilly said:

I saw a Subaru Forester drive past my house on Thursday. On the tow loop was a snapped bit of rope and the whole driver side was dented to buggery and the door mirror hanging off.

Bearing in mind a lot of gamekeeping and groundsmen types drive Foresters it's probably been like that a while. Entirely normal.

Edited by Crossflow Kid on Sunday 4th March 19:35

He wasn't a gamekeeper

[yellowjack]

AstonZagato said:

My wife is a doctor and the clinical lead for her trust. She got a call from staffing to say that one of the nurses couldn't get in due to the snow. We have three cars with four wheel drive, so I suggested that I could go and get her. (yeah, give me a medal). My wife gave me a look and said "You've been out there. The roads are clear. She just wants a snow day."

A particular member of staff may have done other things to have earned your wife's reaction. But otherwise, benefit of the doubt is a good idea here.

I live on a relatively normal estate of cul-de-sacs. All adopted, maintained roads with decent surfaces and well drained. Yet for two days I couldn't get off the estate because our road is at the bottom of a small hill and it simply wasn't safe to try to negotiate the corner at the bottom of the hill. A run at it would have resulted in a slide into the verge, and no doubt damage to my car. Taking it slowly around the corner led to a lack of traction on the start of the slope. And I'm pretty capable of driving on snow.

The bulk of the problem was caused by Muppets driving on the snow early on, compacting it into ice. Instead of getting out there with brushes, shovels, and the contents of the County Council grit bin on that corner, selfish people just drove over it and spoiled things for everyone else. Added to that was me suffering with a bad cold which meant I wasn't happy to drive because I wasn't sure that my reactions would be quick enough, and feared making poor decisions.

All the while, though, the 'main' road onto which we exit the estate was running reasonably well. It had been gritted (it's a bus route) and was driveable in both directions. The motorway (M3) nearby was open over all four lanes both ways. Yet only a few miles away the M3 was restricted badly, and struggling to stay open.

My wife made it in OK the day before, and due to her on-call commitment she was put up (but not fed, the cheapskate wkers) by the hospital Trust overnight. She then got a lift most of the way home the following night from a colleague's husband. So although people who lived in roads with level access to the main local routes were plenty capable of getting onto the roads and into work, for the sake of half a mile and a small hill, I genuinely couldn't safely get the car out. My wife would have walked (in wellies) the four miles to work if required, but it didn't come to that. But much further and I'd have been insisting the Trust get her a 4 x 4 rescue type to the door, or forbidding her to leave the house. There's only so much a person can be expected to reasonably be prepared for such unusual weather, and as neither of us skis or hill-walks, why should we be expected to own expensive clothing and footwear for such activities?

As it was, we were running low on food at home, so I walked the near five mile round trip to our nearest supermarket. That walk, in wellies, has left me with a sore, blistered ankle and a reminder of why 5 kg of Pepsi Max and Chardonnay are not "essentials" and make for a heavy rucksack! Again, if I'd been able to get off our street in the car, I could have made the trip safely on the 'main' roads, but once again (as seen in previous, less harsh winters) I seem to be the only one of the neighbours to even consider shoveling snow off our street BEFORE it gets compacted into ice and difficult to drive on.

Annoying how badly we get affected by heavy snow, when you see how quickly everything clears up again when the temperature rises. Which is probably why we don't invest widely in expensive specialist snow clearing equipment in the UK - things just tend to sort themselves out quickly enough that we manage to not starve or freeze to death regularly in large numbers.

[yellowjack]

egor110 said:

It is pretty bad up there .

We've had local ordinary people ( not walts) giving people lifts to the hospitals or driving doctors around , these people are builders or landscape gardeners who obviously can't work so making use of there pick ups .

Whilst all these stories of ordinary people mucking in and helping to keep essential services working with no thought of reward is lovely, I'd just like to add the following note of specific thanks...

To the pick-up driving arse-face on Friday afternoon,

You, sir, are a tt of the highest order. I naively assumed that you were either a council worker, or a public spirited citizen come to spread grit from the bin onto the nasty bend at the bottom of the hill out of our estate. I spotted you as I walked to the supermarket, and it did occur to me that it was odd that you were shoveling snow OUT of your pick-up bed at the time, but thought little of it. But when I walked back from the shop, coming in the other way (it's a big loop) I noticed that there was *no grit spread on the corner *no grit spread on the hill and *no grit left in the bin. All of which leads me to believe that you were stealing the grit placed there by the council to try to keep our access to the main road accessible.

So many thanks for your valiant efforts, trundling around in your 4x4 helping yourself to public property, rather than buying a couple of bags of grit salt for yourself, you absolute !

...and no, there is no benefit of any doubt to be had here. I'd checked the salt bin myself a few days earlier and it was close to full. After Captain 4x4 had pillaged it, there was next to nothing left in it. And none of what had been taken had been spread anywhere near the location of the bin. So while I don't deny that there are plenty of people going the extra mile to keep their communities above water during extreme weather, there are probably at least as many unscrupulous individuals out there either taking advantage of conditions to line their own pockets, or plain stealing from their community under cover of the snow. And a plague of festering pustules on them all...

[4x4Tyke]

I've seen the same thing, ahole in Warrior pickup stealing the grit from the bin near my home, nothing put spread in front of the pensioner bungalows, nothing spread on the corners or junction in immediate area, which generally need it. Kicked myself after the fact for not thinking to snap a pic.

[DonkeyApple]

4x4Tyke said:

I've seen the same thing, ahole in Warrior pickup stealing the grit from the bin near my home, nothing put spread in front of the pensioner bungalows, nothing spread on the corners or junction in immediate area, which generally need it. Kicked myself after the fact for not thinking to snap a pic.

Or thinking to spread some grit before someone came along, made the assumption it was being used and nicked it?