Last week, troops from The Royal Regiment of Scotland and 32 Signal Regiment helped ambulances to attend emergency calls in Glasgow and Edinburgh. They later helped clear Edinburgh streets near care homes, doctors’ surgeries and hospitals.

The Army may be drafted in again if, as the Met Office is forecasting, more snow falls this weekend and temperatures go seriously sub-zero for the rest of the month and into the new year.

In what seems to be a U-turn, the Government is encouraging householders to do what they used to do as a matter of course during spells of snow and ice – keep pavements clear.

During the big freeze in January and February this year, whole areas of the Bradford district were dangerous for pedestrians because hardly anybody cleared snow and ice from pavements for fear of causing an accident and being sued – allegedly.

Transport Secretary Phil Hammond wants to change that. He said last week: “In many cases people would like to have the opportunity to have access to grit and salt supplies, so on roads that are not on councils’ gritting routes they can make the pavements a bit easier.

“People have always dug their way out of their own driveways, and I would encourage people who are able to do that kind of thing to continue doing it for themselves and for neighbours who are perhaps less able to.”

Sheffield City Council has already asked for volunteer snow wardens to help keep side roads, cul-de-sacs and pavements clear.

Earlier this year, dozens of Sheffield people volunteered online to spread salt and clear snow from places not visited by municipal gritters. Fifty of them agreed to be trained as snow wardens.

Shipley Green Party councillor Kevin Warnes has outlined the idea to Councillor Ghazanfer Khaliq, environment and sustainability portfolio holder on the Council’s decision-making Executive Committee.

Coun Warnes says: “A network of snow wardens would be fairly easy to set up, cheap to facilitate and would empower local residents to look after their neighbourhoods in ways that are beyond the capacity of the Council.

“It is crazy that pedestrians are left to fend for themselves on icy footpaths while traffic runs smoothly on gritted roads.

“It would be a voluntary scheme, like Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators, but there’s no reason why the Council could not provide incentives to encourage take-up.”

Councillor Warnes’s idea is welcomed by Dr David Robinson, from Bradford Royal Infirmary’s A&E department.

He said his department had been treating significantly more people in the past couple of weeks.

“We have seen a sharp rise in people coming into A&E with injuries to wrists, hips and ankles from falls on snow and ice. More patients needed operations for fractures,” he said.

“The elderly are particularly vulnerable, but icy conditions affect all ages. I think lots of people were caught out, not expecting conditions to be so slippery.”

The whole of the Council’s winter maintenance policy is being scrutinised and should be published next year, says Councillor Khaliq.

“It will cover the issues of gritting, grit bins and categorising roads. But in the meantime we would encourage people to clear footpaths and roads,” he adds.

“Physically, it’s not possible for the Council to do every inch of the district. We would ask citizens to take responsibility to help. As for snow wardens, that is something we would have to look at to see how they would work in Bradford.”

Saltaire residents have already taken the initiative. Tom Longley has started a volunteer snow-clearing group for the next time the village is snowed under.

At the moment, there are ten of them, but they’ve managed to keep some of the village’s slipperiest streets free of ice during the recent freezing weather.

Mr Longley says: “We started off as a group of friends fed up with having to ice-skate to the station each morning after snow. We’ve got our own shovels, and put in an hour when needed.

“We use Facebook to organise ourselves, because it’s simple for people to join up. We’d like the group to grow slowly and keep it practical.

“Now we’ve got going, it would be good if the Council could help us with some grit.

“To get involved, log on to Facebook, search for ‘Saltaire snow clearers’, and join.”