Kent was made to look an embarrassing laughing stock by the M20 chaos last weekend.

Queues tailing back from Junction 8 halfway to Ashford plunged innocent travellers, many from the Continent, into a four-hour crawl through Maidstone.

What should have been a simple 20-minute run well away from the county town became a nightmare. Drivers and passengers had to get out of their cars to find relief from the stress of going nowhere.

This was travel misery on a grand scale and surely it could have been better managed. The Highways Agency was in charge and failed to properly foresee the chaos that would ensue.

Why was no contraflow system? Why was there no diversion along the A20.

It was hard to see any signs indicating trouble ahead in the Ashford area, and while that made the A20 thankfully relatively empty - good for local drivers and residents - it did nothing to ease the pain of the cars, trucks, coaches and vans stuck in gridlock.

Cricket matches were cancelled because teams could not get through until several hours after the scheduled start time.

Numerous appointments were missed. No doubt many people felt ill. And our overseas visitors must have thought they had arrived in a country that would shame the Third World.

We know essential work has to be carried out. But surely it can be planned better. Apparently, the Highways Agency had wanted to do the work over one weekend and two working days but Kent County Council thankfully persuaded officials to change their mind.

Blocking the slip road at J8 during weekdays is already causing enough chaos for residents in Bearsted, with tailbacks a regular feature of the village and Ashford Road. But the complete closure was something else. Road work planning must be done better.

The M20 is a strategic gateway from mainland Europe to Kent and the rest of the UK. The Highways Agency must sharpen up its act. By way of compensation, how about the Government agreeing to Kent collecting a tax on every heavy vehicle driving through the county?

As an asthma suffer I do have a keen interest in air quality and pollution. But Cllr Martin Vye of the Liberal Democrats, do you honestly think a congestion charge for major Kent towns is a solution to my problems?

People need cars in their daily lives. Fact. There is no viable alternative for them and the lack of investment in this countries infrastructure is not the fault of drivers; inexcusable apathy from countless governments are to blame. Kent has some of the worst roads in the whole United Kingdom and the neglection has gone on for far too long.

A congestion charge is not a solution to the problem. I'm still waiting to see the benefits in London, which has not lead to a psychological change in drivers. In fact, Ken Livingston was unpopular for wanting to expanding the charge to other regions of London. Subsquently went on to lose to Boris Johnson in the Mayoral elections. Manchester rejected the preporsal.

It is unpopular and completely unjustified.

Here's some alternatives:

1. Improved road layouts

2. Better junctions

3. Ending the nightmare of poor town management

4. Funding public transport and investing in sufficient vehicles.

The solution is not another tax for over taxed individuals.

As you are all aware, the last two weeks in Kent have been somewhat horrendous. Unless you are between the ages of 5-17 of course! What with school closures, sledding, snowball fights, it’s far from a hard life for the youths.

That can’t be said for the full timers of the county, I certainly haven’t enjoyed the snow ... in fact, I’m pretty sick of it now. As a commuter into the city, last week was definitely not all-white!

Tuesday 30^th November: Plan of action - Save the company from being snowed under!

   It’s 6am and I switch on the telly to see the Weather News.

  ‘We urge you not to travel unless it’s completely necessary’

   I ignore that whilst sipping a hot cup of tea and loading myself up with Beechams.

   I take a quick glance out of the window to see 15cm of snow covering gardens and rooftops.  I must say it looks gorgeous when you’re behind double glazing. Anyway, I ignore the snow whilst opening the front door to head towards the coach stop in my utterly-unsuitable-for-snow kitten heels. I managed to plod halfway up the garden path before slipping onto my backside, hooking myself onto the brown bin on my way down (Massive bruise under the armpit... check!)

I thought I would be the Hero at work that would show all the 15-minute commuters up... living the furthest away I hoped for a big applause as I ploughed my way into the 4^th floor office.

Turns out, turning up 20 minutes late is anything but applaud-able especially when everyone else manages to make it in early despite the weather! I was quite confused as to how we had so much snow in Kent, yet London didn’t even have an icicle in sight? If anyone knows why the snow doesn't settle in London, I’d be very interested to know...?

Anyway, my lovely boss decided he’d let me leave 30 minutes early to avoid any ‘bad weather traffic’... However, all he really done was contributed 30 minutes to my 6 hour journey home. You’ll know from my previous posts that I’m not the biggest fan of commuting and that my coach doesn’t cater for us ‘might need a wee at some point’ passengers. Ultimate result was 3 ladies (including me) clambering off the coach to the hard shoulder and baring all to the standstill traffic and relieving ourselves into the snow. Not my finest moment, although we did receive a few car horns. *beep beep!*

Feeling like my heroic effort was completely wasted on Tuesday; I decided not to attempt the commute for the rest of the week. I hoped my managers would be understanding as I had sent them numerous photos of my traffic troubles the night before. I thought we’d put it down to ‘A Bloody Nightmare Week’ and they’d let me play in the snow instead. Unfortunately, I had to chomp away at my 3 remaining holidays I had left for the rest of the year.

In case you are wondering... the photos I sent them were of jack-knifed Lorries and abandoned cars, not of me squatting on the M25!

I suppose I shouldn’t moan too much as it could’ve been a lot worse. Those poor passengers stuck on a train at Orpington for 2 days! Including one disabled man, who was luckily moved to some sort of ‘safe house’ while they arranged engineers etc. You’d think that the trains nowadays could withstand against temperatures lower than -3 degrees!

I would love to hear other’s stories of Snow-vember & how it affected them.

Happy Sledding!!

There is real passenger anger at the rail price increases due in January 2011 and in my view it is a true outrage. Rather like the spineless bodies of the organisations that are supposed to protect us consumers in regards to energy, phone lines and now rail they all come up with pointless comments for these huge spikes in prices like, “We are disappointed in the increases”.

What is the point in these organisations if they can only provide rhetoric and not positive action? We are also to blame when tickets to sporting events go through the roof or rail tickets go up as we just simply shut up and pay out. We should boycott them, which is harder said than done I hear you say. But writing to your MP or the rail company is also futile. Perhaps en mass we should not renew season tickets and turn our backs on sky-high match prices. It is not going to happen, I know, but if this was France I am sure they would not stomach such increases without protest or mass demonstrations.

As the snow fell across this part of Kent, two things struck me - and none of them was a snowball. Firstly, in January of this year and the month before when the snow fell and the council said it had taken them by surprise did they learn the lesson for next time and do better?  Some lesson. Exactly the same situation has happened again now with even more carnage on the roads. What is going on? Are we so cretinous we cannot learn from our mistakes, just stupid or are we as nation so ill prepared for a bit of bad weather in this country that everything just has to go downhill? I am just amazed that somewhere like Switzerland is able to run any trains or planes without the whole country grinding to a halt.

The funniest story (sadly it is true) during this winter “Armageddon” of three days was that the Police were stopping motorists with too much snow on their car roofs and giving them three penalty points. If that is not just a total waste of time I am going to take my triangle from my old school trunk and join the Salvation Army band.

I am a little bit bored of the snow now, but my dog loves it!!

In the last three days we have had no post, no refuse collection, and the only delivery has been milk everyday without fail. Hurrah for the milkman!!!

It comes to something when the council grits the roads, then has to tell people to forget going outside the borough.

That's what happened yesterday.

Kent County Council could not keep their roads clear in quite the same way that Medway has.

Part of it is down to luck. If the gritters leave at the right time they can catch the snow when there are vehicles about (to stir up the salt slurry they deposit) just after it has fallen.

The problem for KCC seems to have been that they mistimed things.

Having said that an acquaintance was driving on the M2 from Faversham the other night and it was down to a single track. There didn't appear to be any activity.

I also wonder about whether there is more to the chaos than people might be willing to admit.

The Highways Agency invested heavily in a new fleet of gritting lorries a year ago. They used a revolutionary mix of salt - and water.

Almost as soon as the fleet - it replaced all the old lorries - was in service it was called upon to deal with last November's snow.

We all recall the scenes: snow piled up long after the wagons had spread their loads.

There was plenty of traffic to churn it.

I wonder whether the ministerial investigation that was announced on Wednesday will eventually find that diluting salt is not the way to get rid of snow.

***

I have a lot of sympathy for Norman Kemp's concerns about keeping bus services operating. He's the hands-on bus driving boss of Nu-Venture.

Theirs were the only buses on the roads of north Kent and Medway for much of yesterday.

He pointed out that buses used to keep going through thick and thin.

That was especially useful at a time when the rest of us were stuck at home.

I didn't get into my car yesterday. I live in a slight valley and the residential roads were axle-deep in snow.

I would willingly have caught a bus, even if it took several hours to get to work (I live about 12 miles from the office so walking was out). Arriva had all their buses indoors "for safety".

That may be true. It may also have something to do with insurance premiums and private ownership.

A slight slip and the bus could be damaged - that would put it off the road until it was repaired if the bus firm was to stay within the traffic laws.

In the days of state ownership, when buses cost £1,000 a piece and not £150,000 as today, they would keep going until it was impossible to move any more.

I remember one coach driver who drove from Cheltenham to Weymouth in the 1970s. He got to Dorchester where the police stopped him from going any further.

"The hill into Weymouth is impassable," he was told. "There's a train about to leave - I would suggest you catch it."

He did. It was the last train or bus between the neighbouring towns for a week.

That was when the driver was allowed to return to his coach. It started first time, and after a few more adventures arrived back in Cheltenham seven days and a couple of hours late.

Those were the days when men were men - and bus firms were a breed apart.