This "proactive" approach is a case of "Damned if you do, damned if you don't". Anyone remember last year's fiasco when Gatwick's snowplough's door locks were frozen solid and Heathrow couldn't get de-icers around quickly enough???
Anyway, we bashed this story around on Flyertalk here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=404399