Yeah; it's economies of scale. We mostly don't think it's worth spending a lot of money on equipment that'll only be used for 2 or 3 weeks a year, if that. However, these policies are getting reviewed as extreme weather seems to be getting more common. They ran out of grit for the roads a couple of years back, to much public embarrassment.

Now the cold weather is mostly gone and we're getting quite concerned about floods again. We had virtual drought and hosepipe bans in March last year, then rain more or less non-stop since, with lots of floods. Now the accumulated snow is melting, there is going to be more water.