Christmas plans in Caterham to bring a taste of winter fun throughout the shopping areas with artificial snow on three Saturdays leading up to Christmas, fell foul of Health and Safety concerns by Surrey Highways. The plan to bring in film set snow machines had to be limited to the Asprey fountain area but nevertheless proved a huge success for families and children in the run up to Christmas. However as we all know the real snow turned up and the third intended 'Snowing Saturday' became a battle by everyone in the whole town to cope with ungritted and blocked roads for days leading up to Christmas Eve.

Chris Windridge, Chairman of the Caterham Community Partnership who introduced the idea of the snow machines, said: "It's ironic that the 'Fun' snow had to be scaled back, when conditions were quite safe and then followed by the real thing, which had us reaching for the record books and complaining about the lack of grit!"