Snow News Like Good News...

We’ve all got used to the mild winters of the last couple of decades so the recent snowy conditions have challenged everyone. Located not far from the chaos of the A3, CIA was hit quite badly but nonetheless we rose to the challenge and were open for business throughout.

A few people didn’t make it in on Wednesday the 10th but most people did and It was all hands to the pump.

Colin Langdown, the General Manager, with his partner, Sally (who works for CIA’s sister company, Southern Monitoring) and her son James (at home on leave from the Army) arrived at 6am and started shovelling.

They were soon joined by Steve Kimber, the Managing Director, and his wife, Lenise, (Manager of Southern Monitoring before she retired) and before long as other staff arrived, there was quite a Snow Party going on with everyone lending a hand to make sure it was business as usual. Some of the best fun was getting the snow and icicles off the roof – identified as a hazard by our H&S Manager, Peter Emmonds. Everything from brooms to snowballs were used – some more effective than others!

The biggest problem was the car park. We’re all wondering what happened to the driver of the courtesy car abandoned in our overflow car park, and whether he’s coming back to claim it. That car park was like an ice rink and even now it’s still very slippery and only open to 4x4 drivers and the brave.

Kieron MacDonald from Stores had been salting the main car park religiously since the beginning of the cold snap so by that Wednesday, we were down to our last two bags of rock salt which didn’t go very far. Ever resourceful, we mixed sharp-sand with dishwasher salt which did the trick and even though it was quite slippery, we’ve been able to use it throughout.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

We’re proud of the way everyone played their part but perhaps more than anyone else, CIA Service Engineer Mike Cook deserves a special mention.

He is a member of a national network of 4x4 drivers who volunteer their services to help their local community in times of crisis by supporting the Emergency Services, Councils and other organisations. They are on call 365 days a year but his group, the West Sussex 4x4 Response Team (www.ws4x4rt.org), was only formed last August so this was their first major call to arms.

The whole team worked flat out for several days, between them travelling well over a thousand miles across the whole of West Sussex and Hampshire. The deep snow and ice made for hazardous driving but they made sure that NHS staff got to hospitals, and home carers reached the vulnerable and got them home again, as well as rescuing stranded motorists and picking up a man at Singleton who was making his way on foot from Bognor to Midhurst because there was no public transport and he was desperate to get to his wife and baby who were in hospital there.

Proof of just how important his contribution is came from the HR Director of St Richards, Denise Farmer, who took time out of her busy schedule to ring and thank us for allowing Mike the time off to help others. CIA is happy to sponsor Mike, who remains on full pay when he and his fellow volunteers are called upon to help.