Shieldhill folk '˜cleared the street' for ambulance crew

The drama unfolded early yesterday afternoon when it became clear the man’s taxi driver son couldn’t get through the heavy snow blocking Pirleyhill Drive - and neither could an ambulance.

Local woman Claire Allan said: “A girl who is a neighbour knocked on all the doors, while my mum and I just asked people digging out their drives on the street to come and help.

“It all ‘snowballed’ from there, and soon there must have been about 40 people all clearing the snow from the road - it was really incredible.

“So many people helped and got other people involved, so it would be wrong to single anybody out, but it was a massive team effort by everyone on Highview Grove and Pirleyhill Drive”.

Their action helped emergency services reach a vulnerable patient, in a scene replicated in various ways across the area.

What would have taken even a few fit people hours to accomplish was completed in a relatively short space of time by a community effort which needed no organisation - just a friendly request to get the (snow)ball rolling.

Ms Allan took a video clip of the effort, which you can see on her Twitter feed at @clairebearsails