ONE inch of snow again caused total chaos on our roads on Tuesday morning.

Why? There seems to be no reason for it.

Traffic was jammed throughout the district with Manchester-bound traffic causing bottlenecks at Astley and tailbacks from Green Lane to the East Lancs Road.

On my appalling route, vehicles were backed up from Bolton to Schofield Lane, Atherton, and it took me 50 minutes to drive the five miles from the M61 junction at Westhoughton to Leigh. I was stuck in Schofield Lane for 20 minutes! Unbelievable and infuriating. Drivers were even doing U turns on Atherleigh Way.

I shudder to think what bedlam would be caused by a real freeze when the roads are gridlocked as the result of a few minutes of snowfall. I was only glad I was not in the queue heading for Bolton!

LIKE thousands of others I battened down the hatches in preparation for the big freeze which at the time of writing still hasn't really arrived.

I didn't join the panicking siege brigade by rushing out to clear the shelves of thermal underwear, flasks, soup, electric blankets and de-icer, but instead headed for the garden to wrap up my terracotta pots and Canary Island palms. My bed sheet box is now that bit lighter.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one daft enough to put their greenery first. I've noticed plenty of other homes while out and about with what look like wrapped up brush steels growing out of the soil.

I don't know if it's consideration for the plants or being tight fisted, but I don't see the point of letting expensive plants wither and die when it takes little effort to protect them -- and they don't have to be replaced when summer eventually returns.