MATT JOHNSON is chairman of Mando Group

DEBATES continue over UK plc’s preparedness for winter and, in particular, the arrival of the white stuff. Liverpool and surrounding areas were, generally, lucky to avoid the first wave of winter chaos early in December.

Depending on your point of view, and these range from excited children breaking up on that Friday before Christmas when we received our first seriously disruptive snowfall, to those in the warehousing and distribution sector facing a Christmas crisis head on, snow is a seasonal treat or a seasonal threat.

Three or four inches falling on the last day of term may have been fun for some. For many businesses, it could not have come at a worse time.

A week later might have been a better bet – except for the bookies.

But instead it fell when it did – and left a legacy beyond slippery pavements and slushy roads.

Even before that snow fell, the Centre for Economics and Business Research issued stark warnings.

Its chief executive, Douglas McWilliams, predicted grimly that as many as 800 or 900 businesses could go bankrupt because the final banzai weekend of shopping frenzy was going to disappear through disruption.

Synovate, a retail analyst that counts shoppers electronically at 5,500 British stores, said high streets had already lost a week’s worth of shoppers this winter because of snow and ice.

It’s not just the retail or distribution sectors suffering.

Damage to homes, and other premises, not to mention vehicles pirouetting into each other (or worse) on untreated roads, comes at a cost, often to insurance companies.

One such is RSA who estimated the disruptive weather blew in a £4.8bn loss to our economy. And, they added chillingly: “Many smaller businesses may not be able to cope.”

All of which has renewed the debate about our state of preparedness to handle it.

This argument for and against adopting a new snow strategy has become an integral part of winter weather.

This time, there was a twist: the really, seriously disruptive stuff fell in the same week our local authorities saw the axe taken to their funding settlements from central government.

If you had been able to find a town hall treasurer beneath the small forest's worth of printed spreadsheets on his or her desk and asked them about money for snow clearing gear and labour, you may not have heard a seasonal response.

The problem remains justifying the outlay.

Ask many of the businesses caught up in this month's whiteouts – those that have survived, that is – and they will tell you it is the third or fourth time this year they have been hit by winter weather.

Surely that alters the calculations on how much we should invest in being able to keep the country on its feet when it snows?