At the time when I was writing last week's column, I was stuck in London, unable to find a clear path to West Dorset.

Having heard what happened to the passengers on one of the Weymouth line trains, I am profoundly grateful not to have made that particular trip - I am currently investigating what needs to be done to make sure that we don't have a repetition of this lamentable episode.

Given the increased likelihood of extreme weather events over coming decades due to climate change, it is particularly important that our systems should be ready to cope with such events.

But I don't think we should focus only on the things that went wrong during the snowstorm.

By and large, the more striking point is the good work that was done to get everything moving again pretty rapidly.

Our various local councils each played their parts with considerable efficiency during this particular episode.

We shouldn't forget the very hard work that council officers and other public servants.

But of course, it wasn't only the official bodies that played their part. With our rural road network, it would be quite impossible for the authorities to deal with the snow and ice if their efforts weren't complemented by the farmers who come out to help clear the way on countless rural roads and lanes. We owe them, too, a substantial debt of gratitude.

There is, I think, a wider lesson here too.

The relationship between the farmers and the official systems of the councils provides a useful model for resilience.

It simply isn't possible for the councils to keep a vast army of people permanently employed on the offchance that they will be required to do some vital work on particular days in a particular year; and what is true of the people is true also of the machinery - you can't keep huge piles of snow-clearance kit available to deal with thousands of rural lanes, when the machinery in question may be used for only a few days every few years. On the other hand it isn't sensible to rely simply on unpremeditated goodwill gestures at times when disaster strikes.

So the division of responsibilities that we saw coming in to action a few days ago is an extremely sensible way of getting the best of both worlds. The authorities provide some basic infrastructure (like bins with grit in them) and identify farmers who are able and willing to do the clearance work, largely using their own machinery - and the farmers then swing into action in the thoroughly satisfactory way when the need arises.

This is a genuine "private/public partnership."