Sir – In response to Keith Mitchell, leader of Oxfordshire County Council’s comments (January 7) that each householder or shopkeeper take a shovel and clean the pavement in front of their house or shop — this is exactly what happens in other parts of the world where large snowfalls are more commonplace.

I lived in Chicago for three years and there it is your civic duty to clear your own pavement of snow and it works perfectly.

For the elderly there was always a willing neighbour ready to help, bringing out that “spirit” Mr Mitchell was talking about, that is sadly lacking here.

If this were common practice in the UK, we might have got more schools open and thus avoided many parents having to take unnecessary time off from work to look after their kids!

Tom Bowtell, Long Wittenham