Sir – It is, of course, a disgrace that the pavements were not gritted during the recent icy weather. Even in the Summertown shopping centre, the pavements were treacherous.

And I don’t want to hear a lot of rubbish from the council about how they were ‘caught out’. The Met Office was warning for a week in advance. Enough time to send 100 lorries to the Cheshire salt mines or to bring in a ship from Tunisia.

I have a simple solution for pedestrians the next time this happens: walk on the gritted roads and let the traffic take care of itself. I have tried this with some success.

There is another point. A lot of people did not clear the pavement outside their houses for fear of being sued by ’Elf and Safety if someone slipped. Most people in my road in North Oxford ignored this and cleared the pavement — and the pavements of those too elderly or infirm to do it themselves. The result? A slip-free zone. I think that it should be mandatory for people to clear their pavement, and that they should be sued if they don’t.

Nigel Clarke, Oxford