UK - London - Council grit and snowy boot prints

One shovel-full of road grit has been left in a small pile at the kerb of a side road in East Dulwich, South London. Left by workers from the borough of Southwark, this modest supply is symbolic of the controversial problem of local government running low on street grits and salts that help prevent thousands of traffic collisions and pedestrian falls every winter. In January of 2010 (following the equally snow fall of February 2009) councils were caught unprepared for adverse weather which virtually brought towns and cities and rural communities to a standstill. We look down at the fallen snow, trodden by countless pairs of boots which compress the snow and make it an often treacherous surface on which to tread. (Photo by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)