Well Said Flybar
"When ATC more or less ran the show, the Watch Supervisor would perform a surface inspection and if necessary give word for the brushes and sprayers to be sent out. And out they came promptly. Nowadays, that sense of urgency seems to have been lost. "
1/ ATC never ran the show they were and are an important part of a team effort.
2/ The Ops team do exactly as you say ATC did above and unlike ATC are trained, tested, monitored in their competency to complete what after all is not an ATC function but an Airfield operations function.
3/ The intricacies of resourcing a regional airport in the current economic climate are obviously not your strong point. As it is not with the rest of the nation. Unless the SLF is prepared to cough up another few squid on all tickets all year to allow for shiny brand new snow kit and staff standing around for 50 weeks doing nothing else, we will always play catch up.
SAFETY is the number ONE priority in this time of non standard ops, that is after all is part time job.
The team at Leeds have and will continue to do a fantastic job and attempt to keep all the plates spinning( of which there are many) as the dropping of one is not an option.
OWZ