When confronted with the serious shortcomings in its response to the recent severe weather the response of Tory Councillors here in Surrey had a familiar ring to it. This ranged from ‘No one should travel in this kind of weather,’ to ‘You should not be on the road without snow shoes on your car,’ and ‘It was exceptional weather – it’s impossible to plan for.’ Perhaps the best was ‘Well it proves global warming isn’t happening.’

I’ve heard this before, during the Thatcher regime. People started to see through such excuses following the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in March 1987 that killed 150 passengers and 38 crew members. The inquiry that followed identified a whole chapter of neglect where desire for profit took priority over an obligation to maintain decent standards of safety.

Is it too cruel to equate the chaotic response of a county like Surrey to a disaster of that scale? I believe not – not when you hear of people going to hospital suffering from hypothermia after being trapped for hours. Mind you, at least Basingstoke responded by providing shelter for people in this situation. Surrey was content to let people fend for themselves. Meanwhile the accident and emergency wards are packed with people who have fallen on untreated footpaths.

Nothing however dampens the hubris of Surrey’s public relations, however. A few days before the severe weather struck its cabinet member for transport issued a statement saying how well Surrey was prepared. Unlike its response to severe weather last year, Surrey’s contractors had an adequate supply of grit and salt. Priority was to be given to highways leading to accident and emergency centres. In reality the problem was not the quantity of materials available, but the failure to treat many of the roads themselves.

The absence of a working emergency number meant that roads were not closed, including those in a dangerous condition, which saw cars and ambulances slide into uncontrollable skids. Surrey’s much vaunted One Stop Shop linking borough and county council in emergency situations simply referred callers from borough level to a county number that failed to answer. The day of the crisis coincided with one of the busiest shopping days prior to Christmas. The gridlock that followed was exacerbated by the poor planning. Grit boxes – the self-help element in the emergency provision – did not provide adequate assistance: they were either non-existent or had not been filled prior to the arrival of the severe weather.

Jon Cruddas’s recent article in the Guardian aside, Labour has failed to take up Cameron’s offer to feel the collar of a Tory administration in action by examining what it does in local government. Labour should point up how effectively Gordon Brown dealt with the floods in Cumbria and similar emergencies. Labour has learnt from its past mistakes – a stark contrast with the stumbling inefficiency of Tory councils like Surrey.