ALISON Rowat (“Is Scotland turning snowflake in the face of bad weather?”, The Herald, January 18) suggests that the dispute over who is to blame for the failure to cope with heavy snow on the roads is just between the SNP Scottish Government and Labour-run local councils.

The truth is this is just another symptom of the austerity policies of the Conservative Party governing the UK – and setting the budgets for both English local councils and the Scottish Government. These budgets have been lower as a percentage of GDP every year since the Conservatives got into government in 2010, due to Conservative ideological belief that all public spending is wasteful.

Governments are fond of saying they’re spending “more than ever before”, omitting that they aren’t spending as much per person, or relative to increased demand on services over time due to growing population, higher proportion of elderly people in the population, and so on. So they’re spending less relative to the size of the economy and to what is needed.

Certainly the Scottish Government decides how much of the Scottish budget goes on Scottish Government-run services and how much to local councils. But the UK Government has been slashing funding for local councils in England, and reducing NHS (and other departments’) spending as a percentage of GDP. The Barnett formula results in proportional changes to the Scottish budget. So Scotland too, gets a bit more money than last year, but not enough to cope with growing population and demand on services.

If the budget was bigger, the Scottish Government would pass on more to councils, who could afford more grit and gritters and snow plows and drivers. Instead, as you reported, budgets are so stretched that a few days of snow used up many councils’ entire budget for winter weather (“Council have already spent entire winter roads budget”, The Herald, .

Duncan McFarlane,

Beanshields, Braidwood, Carluke.

IS Scotland the only country in the world where the Transport Secretary is required to resign if there is snow? As far as I can see from an internet search the answer is yes.

It really shows how desperate British nationalist politicians are, calling for Humza Yousaf to be sacked not over something he is actually culpable of. They are reliant on the actions of reckless drivers who ignored warnings not to travel in severe weather as their latest excuse.

In December 2017 many drivers were stranded on the M25 in London and I can recall no such calls for for Chris Grayling to be sacked.

Mr Yousaf also regularly takes criticism for the cost and performance of the ScotRail franchise, which figures just released by the RMT show is the third-cheapest per passenger mile in the entire UK and is a whopping £27 a mile cheaper to run than South West Trains. It is also consistently one of the better performers in terms of punctuality.

So why is there no clamour for the failing Westminster Transport Minister to be sacked? The hypocrisy is staggering.

James Cassidy,

Rannoch, Boswall Drive, Edinburgh.

ONCE again we have heavy snow on our motorways and the media are full of complaints from unhappy people who have been stuck in jams for hours. They rightly ask: how do other countries in Europe manage to keep the traffic moving in these circumstances?

One answer might be that they pay more in tax and therefore there is more to spend on the infrastructure. Another might be that drivers are required to take responsibility for their vehicles. In Germany, if your vehicle gets stuck in the snow and obstructs traffic, the police will issue a heavy fine if you do not have winter tyres fitted. The result is that most German drivers change to winter tyres at the end of autumn. In Austria it is compulsory to fit winter tyres between November and April.

We have driven frequently in Germany and Austria in winter, often in bad weather, and have rarely encountered the kind of scenario witnessed this week. Perhaps if more of us, and especially the freight companies, would consider using cold weather tyres we would have less trouble in the snow.

Allan Macintyre,

14 Lennox Avenue, Stirling.

ALISON Rowat writes that “low temperatures and blizzards brought transport to a halt across the country”. Notably during these past days the trains have continued to regularly pass here, including the daily service between Inverness and London. Is Ms Rowat suggesting that the railways are not part of the transport system?

As for the blockages on the M74 involving jack-knifed heavy lorries, such problems would be much reduced if more of these goods were to be transported by rail. No particular transport method is perfect, but a more equitable share on the railway would be in all our interests, except of course the highly influential road haulage industry.

John Edwards,

128 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.

THE roads in Renfrewshire are currently in a worse condition than I can ever remember. There are many large deep potholes which are a real hazard causing damage to vehicles and posing a risk to other road users as cars swerve to avoid them. In the dark it is almost impossible to see them. Each journey has become a ‘Kim’s game’ trying to remember where the holes are in order to attempt to avoid them.

Has the method of road surfacing or the materials used been altered? Have road construction companies forgotten the importance of a camber and the inclusion of adequate drainage? Rural roads in France are much better with proper ditches at each side to drain surface water. Saving money by cutting maintenance of drainage and ditches is no real saving when it leads to more damage to the road surface.

Fiona Downie,

49 St Andrews Drive, Bridge of Weir.

IT can't be long now until Nicola Sturgeon tells the Scottish public that the snow in England is worse than here. She is also missing a trick in her anti-Brexit mission, because an expert recently told me that "there will be much less snow if we leave the UK and join Europe. The new windmills they will force us to build will soon blow the snow south".

Allan Sutherland,

1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.

IT has been so cold lately that someone actually saw a Carillion director with his hands in his own pockets.

William Findlay,

Flat 64 Bishop’s Gate, Bishopbriggs.