HemmersChess

Jamie Lafferty makes his way through 36 bowls of soba noodles in Hiraizumi, Iwate, Japan

Jamie Lafferty makes Soba noodles in Kumamoto - video

Cold noodles are a source of great rivalry and pride in Japan. Jamie Lafferty slurps down 36 bowls and rustles up some soba of his own

• As featured in our Tokyo city guide

Few countries are as passionate and proud of their food as Japan. Each of its 47 prefectures is fiercely tribalistic about one dish or another, and noodles are particularly contentious. In Shikoku they argue about who produces the best udon (fat, chewy wheat-flour noodles), while on Kyushu ramen (slobbery Chinese-style wheat noodles) is the most popular. When it comes to soba (slippery, often cold, buckwheat noodles) almost every prefecture in northern Honshu claims to be its authoritative home.

As an uninitiated gaijin (foreigner), it's impossible for me to say which is the best, but this much I know: eating soba is never more fun than in Iwate – specifically, when ordering the unfortunately named wanko soba.

There are several theories about the origins of wanko soba, but one of the most likely is that a gluttonous feudal lord dropped in unexpectedly on some local peasants. Without much in the pantry, they sheepishly offered cold, plain soba noodles, fully expecting the lord to fly into a rage. But he loved them, asking for more and more and piling up small bowls as he wolfed the food down.

Today, that greedy spirit is alive and well: the aim of wanko soba is to eat as many small bowls of soba as possible – and you don't need to be a visiting lord to do it. It's very particular to Iwate (wanko means bowl in the local dialect), but even within the prefecture there are regional differences. Those wishing to give it a go in the capital, Morioka, have a waiter standing over them, serving more and more noodles until they submit.

But it was further south, in the historic town of Hiraizumi that I gave the dish a try. At Bashokan, 12 bowls are served at a time – you can order up to 24 for ¥1850 (£16) and take a dozen extra free on top of those. For cold noodles, it's not cheap. The noodles are plain but they are served with dashi sauce for dipping, wasabi to liven things up a bit, and dried seaweed to push to one side. All of this is supposed to make the endless repetition a little easier on the palate.

When I gingerly left the table, I could feel several miles of noodles wiggling and jiggling inside me. I tried to console myself with the knowledge that the Japanese regard soba as the healthiest of all their noodles, though forcing down 36 bowls probably took them well out of that bracket. My total was pitiful: depending on who you listen to, the record stands between 250 and 500 bowls. Perhaps, if it hadn't cost so much, I'd have managed a few more bowls, but I was never in danger of reaching three figures.

A few weeks later, hundreds of miles south in Kumamoto prefecture, I tried making soba. It was much more physically demanding than I'd expected: the process is still done by hand and the noodles have to be cut individually. With beads of sweat dripping off my nose and into the mixture, I began to understand why soba is not only considered the healthiest choice of noodle in Japan, but also why the manual labour drives the cost up. My final product was highly irregular in shape, but the taste, thankfully, was just about the same. I'm almost certain of that.

• Jamie Lafferty is a travel writer who ordinarily blogs at idoneaholiday.blogspot.com. He travelled to Japan as part of the Travel Volunteer Project.

For more information go to the Japan National Tourism Organisation's website: jnto.go.jp/eng

Portland, Dorset: As the ground sloped away on the sheltered side, there was a change; we came to a little enclave with a character anything but bleak

The eastern side of Portland was sheltered, even on a windy day, with views of cliffs gently stretching away. The calm was in contrast to the buffeting we had received standing on the exposed Atlantic edge of the island, where the landscape fitted the customary descriptions of Portland as bleak and treeless.

With its geology and centuries of quarrying Portland is, of course, where most buildings are made of the one material. We passed old houses made in the characteristic sturdy, low style with severe stone porches, proof against any weather. But as the ground sloped away on the sheltered side, there was a change; we came to a balmy, wooded area, with mown lawns and cedar trees, a little enclave with a character anything but bleak, and more like that of Torbay than of the coast we had just left. Here, some of the buildings, like the pastiche, castellated Pennsylvania Castle built between 1797 and 1800, had their own distinctive style and taste.

The Portland museum is housed in two picture-postcard, 17th-century cottages attractively gabled and thatched, with a warm and welcoming look. One was adopted by Thomas Hardy as the home of Avice in his Portland novel, The Well-Beloved. A lane beside the museum leads to where steps go steeply down to Church Ope cove, a quiet inlet protected from the wind, said to have been used by smugglers but now a place of recreation; we looked down on bathing huts and small boats. Above the cove are the ruins of St Andrew's church scattered among the debris of successive landslips, but much higher again and close beside us, towering above the beach, was a rocky bluff on top of which stand the sheer walls of the ruined Rufus Castle. The original was said to have been built for William Rufus, the son of William the Conqueror. It peers out over the sea with a field of vision that no invader could have escaped.

Wetherby Whalers' family-owned business will spend £500,000 doing up the grand old place - including Harry's original shed and those jaw-dropping chandeliers

Good news for those fond of northern traditions and sad to see an old one die: Harry Ramsden's original chip shop at Guiseley has been rescued.

Mourning was a bit muted when its closure was announced last year – see the Northerner's report here - because in food terms, it had seen so much better days.

But closure and demolition of a site with such a history, over 83 years, would still have been a wrench; so it's a relief that it isn't going to happen after all. The Wetherby Whaler fish and chip group is taking over the place and plans to spend £500,000 on getting it back to its former splendour.

News is awaited over whether all 24 jobs at the closed restaurant will be replaced; but it could be more. Meanwhile the group's co-founder Phillip Murphy, who launched Wetherby Whaler with his wife Janine in 1989, says:

The famous fish and chip restaurant in Guiseley is the spiritual home of fish and chips in England. It would be a national scandal if it were to close at this time of economic uncertainty.

Our investment has saved a Yorkshire landmark and will ensure the tradition of fine fish and chips continues at this important location.

The new Wetherby Whaler in Guiseley will be our flagship restaurant. We expect it to recapture the atmosphere and flavours of Harry Ramsden's best years.

We are confident that with the right investment, careful attention to detail, great-tasting fish and chips and excellent value for money, we will make a lasting success of this new venture and return the restaurant to its glory days.
Our family-owned business is built on solid foundations and this has given us the confidence to invest. It fits perfectly with our business strategy of controlled growth and accentuates our belief that Yorkshire is a great place to do business.

Harry's at Guiseley was never the same after the brand was franchised, with branches bobbing up in unlikely places worldwide, and in November its latest owners, the Birmingham company Boparan Ventures headed by businessman Ranjit Boparan, announced its closure. The Harry Ramsden brand continues elsewhere and Boparan forecast expansion of the UK's 35 other outlets.

Wetherby Whaler plan to keep Harry's original shed, which is tucked round the back of the glitzy 1931 restaurant which defied the Depression by forming an unprecedented palace for the 'people's food'. The chandeliers made a particularly strong impression, and their cleaning and restoration is one of Mr and Mrs Murph'y first ambitions.

The Northerner is getting in touch with local poet and musician Eddie Lawler to see if he can right an ode - maybe on lines - to replace his recent requiem, which we described a month ago.

Poll: The chief executive and five directors of Network Rail have refused bonuses – is this a sign huge payouts have become unacceptable?

Like humans, snow monkeys love to relax in a nice hot bath. David Levene visits Japan's Jigokudani Monkey Park

That should read 'one-finger' for American readers. But here's welcoming the return of England's only tourist attraction with a cafe where you couldn't drink tea

There's a very welcome ceremony in Rotherham today which sheds light on one of the most interesting episodes of the north's long-standing and entirely justified truculence against centralised power.

The Mayor of Rotherham, Coun Shaun Wright, will preside over a topping-out ceremony at Boston Castle, a little fortified folly with overlooks the Don Valley and can just be glimpsed from the M1.

Its name derives from the USA's Boston and it was built to commemorate the famous Boston Tea Party, not in any spirit of revenge but entirely in support of the American rebels. The man who commissioned it in 1773, the third Earl of Effingham, was one of many northerners who backed George Washington & Co in what was in effect the UK's second civil war. The Northerner's colleague Jonathan Freedland has written a very good book about this: Bring Home the Revolution.

Effingham had a sense of humour and forbade tea-drinking in the folly, which is one of a series which make an excellent northern tour if you have a few days spare this summer. Three similar sites are the Greystoke folly-farms in Cumbria – Fort Putnam and Bunker Hill, named after a rebel general and an embarrassing (for us English) battle; the remains of the American Garden at Meanwoodside in Leeds; and the triumphal arch erected by the Gascoigne family at Parlington Park, also near Leeds, which has the splendidly treasonable inscription: Liberty in N. America Triumphant MDCCLXXXIII (1783).

Last time I visited Boston Castle it was in a terrible state, but that was ten years ago and the local council and Heritage Lottery Fund have since intervened. The unsightly Victorian extension has gone, fabric has been carefully repaired and all sorts of useful amenities are being installed for a new visitor centre and cafe including a lift to the turrets to let everyone admire the view.

The work is part of Rotherham and HLF's wider restoration of Clifton Park which was opened in 1876 to mark the centenary of the American declaration of independence. More on that happy occasion here.

The next happy occasion, the castle's reopening, should come later this year - and here's one thing: the ban on tea must surely remain. What a fantastic tourist attraction for Welcome to Yorkshire, especially for Americans and others from overseas: a place in England where you aren't allowed the national drink. Or at least have to pay a healthy fine.

Our weekly look at the new and fun in the world of travel, including a trip to the Bolivian Oruro Carnival, and a website offering a guide to authentic travel in the Caribbean

Tweet us @guardiantravel or email us about your travels

Escapism

A new South America specialist, High Lives (020-8696 9097, highlives.co.uk), is run from London by Bolivian Bibiana Tellez-Garside. It will specialise in fitness holidays that focus on high-altitude training, in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, plus more unusual trips, including the Oruro Carnival, pictured, the Bolivian equivalent to the Rio Carnival, held at 3,708m, from 18 February. An eight-day trip, which also includes a visit to Lake Titicaca and La Paz, costs from £1,500pp. Flights from £1,000

Tweet ur trip

Holiday rip-offs
• £16 for two bowls of Coco Pops at a B&B in Marseille @beckybarnicoat

• Fell for a student wanting to practise her English over tea in Tiananmen Square. Tea house cost us $100! @elizadele

• I paid £8 in Marrakech for a henna foot tattoo – she wanted £30! @caits_

• Man asks 5,000 Leones (75p) to take picture of anti-corruption mural by Freetown Airport, Sierra Leone @ladydaventry

• Lost in 'Nam – jumped on the back of locals' mtrbikes, drove around in circles & dropped where we started – £5 @berti01

• $16 for a cauliflower in Ukraine @littlemissmoi

We had lots of great stories from you about your holiday rip-offs – see our pick of the best here on Storify

Next week: holiday bargains. Tweet us @GuardianTravel #TravelCorkboard

What's new?

Website
Away from the luxury hotels, beaches and golf courses, the Caribbean has plenty to offer those looking for something more authentic, but it can be hard to find information on that side of the islands. A new website fills the hole, with independent content, brilliant ideas and detailed guides to every island, events, accommodation and activities. See definitivecaribbean.com

Teach abroad
Teachers International Consultancy (ticrecruitment.com), which arranges placements at international schools around the world, is calling for qualified teachers (NQT plus one or two years' experience) to sign up now if they want to find a job for next year. Around 6,000 international schools employ more than 250,000 English-speaking teachers, and the number of schools is predicted to grow to 10,000 by 2021. Next year's opportunities include a placement at Harrow International's new outpost in Hong Kong. It's free to sign up and all jobs are paid.

Courses
A new website featuring courses, learning holidays and classes geared towards women has launched at idlovetodothat.com. As well as a girlie cupcake course (5 March, £125pp, Chelmsford) and a dating masterclass (10 March, £298pp, London), there's training for a pilot's licence (from £140 a day, Hertfordshire) and a gourmet break in Provence (4-9 March, £396pp excluding flights).

In other words …

• Campbling – the next level up from glamping – new dedicated website coming soon
• Metronatural – cities near amazing countryside, eg Seattle, Vancouver or Sheffield
• Grillzebo (gas BBQ under a gazebo, find one at Incleborough House's self-catering properties in Norfolk)

Snow watch

There's still loads of snow in most resorts across Europe, the US and Canada. Fresh snow improved already great conditions all over France last week. In Italy, Austria and Switzerland, pistes remain in "excellent" condition (skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/snowreports/snowconditions.aspx)

Where's hot now?

La Gomera (20C)
This island is just a ferry ride from Tenerife (try easyJet or Thomson for flights), but a world apart. Gomera Walking (gomerawalking.com) has group trips there 29 February-7 March and 14-21 March, from €699pp. Or stay at boutiquey Hotel Palacio Marqués (hotelpalaciomarquesdelagomera.blogspot.com, doubles from €78)

You don't have to go to the Alps to enjoy great skiing in Europe. Been there readers recommend resorts from Finland to Romania which are often cheaper, quieter and ideal for beginners

• Add a tip for next week and you could win a digital camera

WINNING TIP: Saariselka, Lapland, Finland

Saariselka is within the Arctic Circle and it felt like a frontier to a winter wilderness. It's great for beginners and intermediates as the slopes are wide and quiet. We were hooked on cross-country skiing and snowshoeing – miles of starkly beautiful woods which you have almost to yourself. It was -20C in the day and our eyelashes froze, but you'll be rewarded with views to Russia and glimpses of the northern lights. Thaw out in the saunas or the tipis warmed by log fires at the bottom of the slopes.
visitfinland.com
blackpuss

Finland

Levi, Lapland
Levi is north of the Arctic Circle so good snow is guaranteed, and due to the long nights the slopes don't open until 10am so there's no rush in the morning. It's easy to be the first down a pristine slope or the last on flood-lit slopes after dark. At the bottom of each slope there is a tipi with a roaring fire where you can barbecue your lunch, as well as mountain bars and cafes. The slopes won't be testing enough for advanced skiers, but there are red runs for intermediates, plus cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. Try the Hotel Hullu Poro – Crazy Reindeer – you can have an en suite sauna, the food is good and it has its own nightclub.
levi.fi/en, hulluporo.fi
DavidPA

Sweden

Åre
Simply fantastic skiing and the most amazing tented barbecue-picnic spots all over the mountain. Breathtaking scenery and no French-style lift queues. Having skied in Sweden it will take a lot of persuading to go back to the busy, concrete resorts in the Alps.
elliottnj

Norway

Geilo
Both Alpine and cross-country skiing in Geilo are brilliant. The slopes are much quieter than in the Alps but just as good. There are plenty of things to do aside from skiing, it's very child friendly, and there's lots of accommodation to suit all budgets, from youth hostels to hotels. Geilo is one of the stations on the spectacular train journey between Bergen and Oslo.
geilo.no/en/winter
Btravel

Hardangervidda
Cross the Hardangervidda plateau on Telemark skis any time before Easter, travelling from hut to hut. Take a guide or experienced friend(s) as there is the risk of severe weather (shovel for snow hole essential).
visitnorway.com
bigessay

Romania

Poiana-Brasov
Learn the basics at Poiana-Brasov deep in the Carpathian mountains. There's plenty of scope for intermediates too, and bargain breaks throughout the season. Après-ski includes cosy bars with gypsy music, restaurants with authentic Romanian food, massages, saunas, skating, swimming or night skiing. Venture further afield and explore traditional villages, taking in Dracula's home, Bran castle. An enchanting horse-drawn sleigh ride through spectacular scenery remains a treasured memory.
poiana-brasov.com
Goforth12

Italy

Roccaraso
An amazing resort with more than 20 lifts and 100km of piste in Abruzzo national park, an hour from Rome. The resort is at 1,750m and the lifts take you up to 2,000m. Passes and hire charges are cheap, and midweek it's virtually empty – we didn't queue at all. All pistes have snow cannons and are really well-kept. Look out for cheap deals for half-board, boots, skis and passes.
roccaraso.net/neve
Bingowingo

Turkey

Ski and sea at Davraz
There aren't many places in the world where you can be gliding down powder snow in the morning and gliding through turquoise waters in the afternoon, but Mount Davraz (2,637m) in the Taurus mountain range of southern Turkey fits this bill. Turkish ski resorts are one of the country's best-kept secrets, with a handful scattered around the vast interior. Davraz has the added advantage of being located just a couple of hours' drive from the stunning Mediterranean coastline, so you can experience "all four seasons in one day" as locals will proudly tell you.
davraz.com, davrazkayakmerkezi.com
rhiannonabike

Heavy snowfall causes transport chaos with trains delayed, cars abandoned and flights cancelled across Britain

• Have you taken any great snaps of snow or travel chaos? Send them to us at pictures@guardian.co.uk and we'll feature the best
• Add your snow creations to our UK Snow Flickr group here

Heathrow airport cancelled half of its flights as the snow and cold weather continued to cause problems across the UK, stranding motorists and leaving roads icy and treacherous.

The travel chaos ensuedon Sunday as the worst of the wintry showers came to an end across the country and forecasters predicted dry conditions and a partial thaw.

Although the snow flurries are now expected to move eastwards, swaths of the UK were on "amber alert" on Sunday, the Met Office's second highest severe weather warning, with icy conditions across much of England, Scotland and Wales.

Church Fenton in North Yorkshire and Wattisham in Suffolk recorded 16cm of snow, while up to 15cm was forecast for parts of Cumbria, Lincolnshire, East Anglia, North Yorkshire, the Peak District and the Midlands.

The icy spell has seen daytime temperatures plummet four or five degrees lower than average for February, traditionally the coldest month of the year.

Heathrow, which had initially cut only 30% of its flights, said the decision was intended to minimise disruption and was made in anticipation of freezing fog.

Although the runways, taxiways and stands had been cleared of snow, only half of the 1,300 scheduled flights went ahead. The London airport, however, said its snow plan had worked "far better" than in previous years, adding that it would operate a normal flight schedule on Monday.

A spokesman said Heathrow, which operates at 99.2% capacity, was "getting back to normal" as it worked to clear the backlog of flights. "We took the decision with airlines and air traffic control yesterday to reduce the flight schedule in advance," he said.

"By cancelling flights in advance airlines have been able to rebook some people on to flights that are departing, and passengers have had better quality information about whether they can fly or not."

Extra staff were being drafted into terminals to help passengers rebook flights, he added.Inbound flights to the airport were also affected, with six transatlantic flights from the US redirected to Shannon airport in Ireland because of the cold snap disruption.

Some were in UK airspace or on approach to London when they were ordered back over to Ireland.

Shannon Airport Authority confirmed arrangements were being made for 400 stranded passengers to stay overnight. The affected routes included Heathrow-bound services from Dallas, Miami, Houston, Washington, Denver and Atlanta.

The transport secretary, Justine Greening, said the authorities at Heathrow were taking the right approach to the problems created by the weather.

"Actually cancelling flights in advance so passengers don't get to the airport and then find their flight being cancelled was one of the main recommendations of the inquiry that Heathrow held into the debacle last year when we saw huge disruption," she told the BBC Sunday Politics programme.

"They are clearly trying to manage the airport and I think the most important thing is making sure that we put safety first. We've got to get planes up into the air and down on to the ground safely.

"That does take a little bit more time to make sure wings are de-iced and that the runways are clear, but over all they're trying to do their best."

The airport came in for heavy criticism following severe weather in December 2010 when Heathrow almost ground to a halt and thousands of passengers were forced to camp overnight in terminals. At the height of the chaos on 19 December, it was able to handle only around 20 flights.

A BAA-commissioned report later concluded the operator's response to the pre-Christmas snow was "initially ineffective" and that the potential impact of the weather had not been fully anticipated in the days before the worst of the snow.

A spokesman for Gatwick said the airport was not experiencing "any major delays" on Sunday and had had to cancel only nine flights. "We're taking a business as usual approach," he added.

Stansted, Birmingham, Luton and Manchester airports were forced to suspend operations for a period on Saturday night as snow piled up on the runways, but normal service was expected to resume on Sunday.

A total of sSix flights were cancelled yesterday in Birmingham, where some passengers were forced to spend the night in thea terminal. But aA spokesman said the airport would catch up todayon Sunday, providing temperatures did not drop too much furtherlower.

In Luton, flights were "fully operational" with some delays due to snow clearing.

A couple of departures were cancelled at Stansted, but a spokesman for the airport said there was "movement" on and off the runway, adding: "Flights are subject to delays of up to about one hour". Although the worst of the snowflurries will move eastwards, swathesswaths of the UK have been placed on amber alert, with the On the roads, motorists faced what the RAC described as a "dangerous cocktail of driving conditions" and were urged to stay at home. Some minor routes were closed altogether. Drivers on sections of the M25 in Hertfordshire were trapped in gridlock throughout the night.

One motorist, Tom Jones, was stranded in his car for more than seven hours. He told the BBC: "We joined the back of a tailback, never realising we would be spending the night on the motorway."

He added that the Highways Agency had to deal with much bad driving, and that he had seen several cars stuck in ditches and many blocking the hard shoulder.

Thames Valley police said the snow had caused a tailback between junctions nine and four southbound on the M40 from about 9pm until the early hours of Sunday.

Police in Kent warned people not to travel unless absolutely essential, and urged people not to cause an obstruction if forced to abandon their vehicles.

The Highways Agency has issued an amber alert, advising people to take extra care while travelling because of "the increased risk of adverse driving conditions".

The AA said it dealt with about 1,500 callouts an hour on Saturday.Rail services have also been affected, with disruption set to continue throughout Sunday.

Southern Railway said trains were subject to delay and cancellation, with journey times extended by up to 30 minutes.

In London, all bus routes were operating on Sunday morning after a few "curtailments" to night bus services, Transport for London said.

Tube services were said to have started well but delays and suspensions soon set in on most lines.

A Met Office yellow alert, which warns people to be aware, was in place for the Highlands and Northern Ireland.

The Department for Transport has said it was better prepared than ever for severe weather. Salt stocks across Britain stand at more than 2.4m tonnes, a million more than last year.

Sometimes it's a fine line between bold cooking and food that doesn't work – and sometimes it's not such a fine line

Patriot Square, Bethnal Green, London E2 (020 7871 0461). Meal for two, with wine and service, gulp, £200

The problem with surprises is that not all of them are nice. A pink macaroon flavoured with Iberico ham served as a petit four is a complete surprise. It's definitely not a nice one. When you are left thinking: "I wish that had been lemon or raspberry or anything other than this", something is up. Sure, I can admire the technique by which all that hammy flavour is slipped into one of those sweet crisp meringue almond confections. That doesn't make it more pleasant to eat. Equally a tiny chocolate roulade with a sweet cream flavoured with ceps served as a dessert is eye-achingly clever. But that doesn't make either one pleasant to eat. When you find yourself reaching for the word "challenging" to describe your dinner and wanting to shout: "Who put all the bloody mushrooms in my pudding?", it's time to get your coat.

It is a shame our meal at Nuno Mendes's restaurant Viajante ended this way. Portuguese-born Mendes is an interesting chef: dark-eyed, intense, uncompromising, eager. A few years ago he attempted to bring his brand of playful modernism to a Hoxton pub. They advertised it as "fine dining in trainers". Few wanted his version of fine dining – curious flavour combinations, lots of sous-vide, liquids dehydrated unto clammy powders – regardless of their footwear. The pub dumped that menu, and Mendes moved on, eventually surfacing amid the grandeur of the former Bethnal Green Town Hall. Here, from an open kitchen, he serves "surprise" tasting menus of six or nine courses to gently hushed dining rooms.

It's not cheap. It's not on nodding terms with cheap. It couldn't even send cheap a postcard. Six courses is £65, and we could find nothing on the wine list below £30; a Marlborough Sauvignon that Majestic would flog me for £7.99 was listed at £32. For this money you get glorious moments and intriguing moments and moments that make you sigh and roll your eyes and want to stick a fork in the back of your hand.

At its best Viajante – it means "the traveller" – is very good indeed. Thai Explosion II may be a stupid name for a canapé, but this rich mousse of confited chicken flavoured with lemon grass, sandwiched between squares of crisp chicken skin and a coconut tuile, was a "blimey" moment. Crunchy biscuits of toasted amaranth smoked over hay with a wood sorrel purée were dense and musky. There were very good breads with a killer quenelle of smoked butter crusted with walnuts. There was a slippery bit of squid with the most extraordinary jellified texture despite having been chargrilled. Of the more substantial dishes the most pleasing was some crisp-skinned but rare trout with bright orange roe and an acidulated julienne of crunchy vegetables. There was a perfectly cooked piece of lobster with leek and milk skin – Mendes likes fiddling with milk – and a curiously traditional dish of cod with parsley and potatoes which was soft and gentle and soothing.

Other things were less successful. Telling us that parsnips have been treated like meat doesn't make them meat, even when you serve them with smears of truffle and onion and squishy beads of vinegary tapioca. It just makes for a brown starchy plateful that looks like it's ready for the dishwasher before you've got started. Planks of pigeon breast cooked sous-vide had that gelatinous texture which, whatever the reality, made it feel uncooked. And when they grandly presented the Viajante olive, and it turned out to be something like a kumquat stuffed with cream cheese wrapped in an olive green gel (it could have been all of these things, or none of them whatsoever), you could hear my eyeballs rolling back in my head. And then came those odd desserts.

In its eagerness to be so very now and forward thinking, the food at Viajante manages at times to feel curiously dated; it recalls the first flush of Hestomania, when even he has moved on and is now cooking up big platefuls of heartiness at Dinner.

Modern techniques are great. They're brilliant. If you want to cook my steak by banging it round the Large Hadron Collider, be my guest. Dehydrate my pig cheeks. Spherify my nuts. But only do so if the result tastes nicer. At Viajante deliciousness is too often forced to give way to cleverness. And that really is the biggest surprise of all.

Email Jay at jay.rayner@observer.co.uk or visit guardian.co.uk/profile/jayrayner for all his reviews in one place

Unethical tourism needs to be stopped by stricter regulations and educating tourists

As the world has grown smaller while our passion for novelty has expanded, our curiosity about different cultures, particularly those relatively untouched by what we deem "civilisation", has grown exponentially. We come, we see and then we overrun wherever it is we have alighted.

The latest manifestation of our thirst for novelty as well as authenticity is causing some alarm – the "human safari". These are organised by unethical tour operators who exploit tribes in India, Central and South America and other corners of the globe who have hitherto had little contact with the outside world. The price paid for this type of tourism has been vividly described by Gethin Chamberlain in these pages over the past few weeks.

His reports on the Bonda tribe in the hilly regions of the state of Orissa in India and the Jarawa in the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, have triggered a huge response from readers of the Observer. The degrading manner in which the tribal people are bullied into dancing for the amusement of convoys of visitors, and members of the police who have a responsibility to protect these people from exploitation, is further illustrated by video evidence on the Observer's website today.

Stephen Corry of Survival International, which campaigns on behalf of tribal people, rightly says: "Tribes are not cultural relics nor should they be treated like animals in a zoo… promoting tours by using derogatory terms such as 'primitive' and advertising their nakedness shows a clear lack of respect."

The national government of India apparently agrees. Recently, it has acted swiftly. Three tour operators have been charged with selling tribal tours "in an obscene manner". Two men face up to seven years in jail if convicted. Laws already exist to safeguard both tribes.

However, it is the failure in the application of such measures that is at issue. In 2002, the supreme court of India, for example, ordered that the Andaman trunk road that runs through the Jarawa tribal reserve should be closed. The ruling has been ignored.

The closure of the road would give choice back to the Jarawa as to how and when they wish to engage – or not – with the outside world. Stricter regulation of the tour operators working in both regions and the disciplining of rogue police would also set a valuable benchmark. However, this is not solely India's problem.

More than a billion tourists will be on the move across the world this year. International travellers and the tour operators that serve them also have a part to play. Some operators behave highly ethically protecting and strengthening indigenous communities. Others, however, are unrestrained in the ways they choose to satiate the fast-growing appetite for experiential adventures.

So where do we go from here? What is required, perhaps, is stricter regulations that cross national borders; tourists encouraged to become better informed and a much wider debate about what unethical tourism does both to fragile societies and those who pay to become spectators in the humiliation and decline of these tribal people.

A beautiful new seafront register office is one of the gems of Blackpool's regeneration

Consider Blackpool. It's a town that is hard to mention without a trace of a snigger, one partly snobbish and partly of the kind generally prompted by outdated engines of fun. It has its place in history as the country's largest ever centre of massed bacchanalia. It has grandeur and bathos, a huge, beautiful beach, some extraordinary buildings and some tottering shacks that barely cling to the wind-blown ground. Once, emulating Paris, it built a version of the Eiffel Tower. More recently it wanted to be Las Vegas (with less heat and no desert, but with sea), and was devastated and angry when its bid to host Britain's first super-casino , with all the life-transforming effects that would allegedly have brought, failed.

According to Alex de Rijke, of the architects de Rijke Marsh Morgan, and the new dean of architecture at the Royal College of Art, the town has "a highly developed mix of the familiar and the surreal; it has a great sense of the mock monumental". Sometimes Blackpool wears the forced grin and the heroic doomed upbeatness of a stand-up comedian who has lost his audience but keeps going even as the bottles hit the stage. But its decades of success, which peaked in the middle of the last century, have also left a feeling that there is too much there, in buildings, people and fantasies, for it to fade away.

In the past few years it has been the target of determined attempts at regeneration, including the revamping of the Blackpool Tower and the grandiose old Winter Gardens, and a new tram service. These stabs at improvement include some atrocious public art, such as an avenue of over-scaled shiny parabolas that hold up some street lights, but also the rebuilding of the esplanade as a series of broad terraces and ramps. It is impressively solid and well built (which, at a cost of £200m, it should be) and its shifting, dune-like slopes pleasurably connect the town to the beach.

The esplanade, designed by the landscape architects LDA Design, was also to be scattered with public art and pavilions, but budget restrictions have reduced their number – thankfully so, as Blackpool doesn't really need more bits and pieces. It already has its tower, its Victorian and Edwardian palaces of fun, its sub-Vegas iconography of giant fibreglass skulls and neon signs luring you into more-or-less clapped-out amusement arcades. Some of the art that survived the cuts is of the swooshing kind favoured by regeneration projects, emblems of positivity by official order. More unusual is the Comedy Carpet, a large square of paving decorated with the jokes and names of old performers – it could have been toe-curling but there is something in the quality of its design and making that carry it off.

The most intriguing of the new structures is Festival House, designed by de Rijke Marsh Morgan, where a short but perky gold tower rises above a long, low plinth in pinkish brick. It treads a line between civic pride and Blackpool's heritage of flamboyant trash, what de Rijke calls "B-movie architecture". It has echoes of such serious precedents as Frank Lloyd Wright, but also 1950s motels.

Its uses are a restaurant (currently awaiting appointment of an operator), an information centre and a register office for weddings. This last raises suspicion of yet more Vegas envy and it does indeed include a room where you can get quickies for £40, but the town council is quick to point out that it simply fulfils one of its responsibilities – to provide facilities for civic weddings. Any resemblance to the Nevada chapels where you can get quickly hitched is coincidental.

Most people, says de Rijke, "regard register office weddings as anticlimactic alternatives to churches", but here the aim was to create "a sense of occasion". So, compressed into what is a small building, the design makes a ceremonial route with as much event as possible. First there is a lobby with a window on to the sea; then a lift; then a waiting space with a balcony from which wider views can be had; then the room for the main event that, high and angular and orientated towards an altar-like table, has a churchy feel. Beyond the table a glazed cleft is filled with a view of the Blackpool Tower, which could be seen, if you fancy, as a bit of boy-girl symbolism appropriate to the occasion.

On leaving this room the couple are then presented with a view of the horizon, before descending a generous stair and exiting via a little garden with a luminescent heart in the paving. It flirts with kitsch but de Rijke says he "also wanted to talk about quality". Materials and detail are both considered and pioneering. The structure, visible internally, is of something called cross-laminated timber, out of which it's possible to make walls, beams, cantilevers, floors and stair treads. He calls it the "new concrete", in that it's as versatile as the hard grey stuff but more sustainable, and "people are more likely to like it".

The bricks on the exterior are made of concrete by a company called Lignacite, with glinting fragments of recycled glass thrown into the mix; again it is both sustainable and pretty. It is, says de Rijke, a "really solid building", and what gives him most pride is "the absence of what you usually see in public buildings: ducts and vents everywhere. There is an absence of crap. If it does feel like a noble space that's why."

It's hard to disagree with him. He and his practice have set out to create a rare thing – a place for civic weddings that is celebratory rather than bureaucratic. They have also sought to capture the spirit of Blackpool without being patronising or cliched. In both they have succeeded, and by offering various views – of tower, horizon, front and streets – as you progress through the building, they help you appreciate what is good about the town.

It remains to be seen if the hundreds of millions spent on Blackpool will give it the new future that everyone hopes for. I'd also like it if a strong wind blew away some of the more lame attempts at public art. But at least they've got a nice place for walking by the sea and a nice place to get married.

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Our writer puts himself in the hands of a superfit instructor to see if he can hack the 'outdoor gym' on the Isle of Wight

I've always had a rather unhealthy relationship with exercise. The more I've abused my body with life's little pleasures, the more I've tried to sweat it out with sporadic bursts of activity. My die was cast by my friend's late dad, who was a PE teacher at our school. Vic maintained a rigorous daily workout in his garden gym well into his 80s, but he also enjoyed sucking down his B&H cigarettes and his Burton ales. Although he regretted his lifelong love affair with the weed, he always said his aim was to "stay fit enough to enjoy my vices".

Which is why I'm on a Wildfitness course on the Isle of Wight. Because it's January, because I have a big birthday approaching and because I can't stand gyms.

I will never have anything approaching the constitution or discipline that old Vic had even in his 80s. I sense it is now or never for me and a healthier lifestyle. The fags have to go and the beer intake has to be reduced. But I know it isn't going to happen if I join a gym, as they've always left me feeling like a battery chicken on a treadmill.

I spend enough time cooped up indoors. What I need is a sustainable, free-range regime like Vic's with his battered old dumb bells and his weather-worn bench and the distressed punch bag hanging outside his back door. All I need is a kickstart.

Wildfitness appeared to fit the bill. Its website promised a fun training programme in the great outdoors coupled with a healthy diet and plenty of rest and recuperation that should leave me feeling re-energised and buzzing with "raw energy". The idea behind the holidays, dreamed up by Tara Wood in 2001, is to debunk outdated fitness methods, such as indoor exercise machines, and to re-engage with nature and the evolutionary principles that kept us lean and fit for thousands of years.

It taps into the movement towards a reconnection with nature that has gathered momentum over the past decade with activities such as foraging, camping, wild swimming and barefoot running. "Humans spent 200,000 years as hunter-gatherers adapting to life on the savannah. We were tall, strong, lean, fast, agile and fertile, yet we didn't need supplements or equipment to keep us fit and healthy. Nature provided everything we needed," according to Wildfitness's blurb.

And that is how I come to find myself doing bunny hops across the springy, sodden turf of the southwest downs within an hour of arriving on the Isle of Wight. "Really?" I think as the fitness instructor Paul Ranson suggests we move on to a series of animal exercises after completing a gentle run up to the top of the downs. Bunny hops followed by a great lolloping bear crawl, a leopard stalking close to the ground and then an angry bouncing chimpanzee? All around us open fields roll out to the sea, and all I want to do is race down them. Paul, sensing my unease, coaxes me through the sequence. I do it, of course, all five minutes of it, and all through gritted teeth – because it is bloody exhausting.

As I soon discover, these animal exercises are merely a playful warm-up to more strenuous activity. But they are engaging muscle groups that my body had long since forgotten it had, and I am already beginning to regret my scepticism at what I assumed to be primary school PE exercises.

The Wildfitness programme is new this year to the Isle of Wight – its home camp is in Kenya, and there are other bases in Crete and Spain – and is being run by two irrepressible sisters who grew up on the island, Ro and Netta Pakenham-Walsh. They have mapped out an adventure playground after a lifetime of discovery along the beaches and the downs of the island. They source most of the ingredients for the meals from their parents' garden, including the honey from their hives. And they have secured the most magnificent of bases for what might otherwise pass as a somewhat abstemious, luxe-free break – NorthCourt Manor, a Jacobean pile set in 15 acres of gardens in which many of the activities take place.

Over the next two days, in the shadow of its imposing walls, I attempt to remine some of the iron in my soul by completing circuits within its grounds and using its natural features as an outdoor gym. One of these sees me running up a bank on all fours, crawling across a lawn, hopping up a series of steps, jumping from a tree stump, hanging from a branch, throwing and running to retrieve a big rock, crawling under foliage, weaving through a bamboo plantation before running with a log. Not just one circuit, but to be repeated for 15 minutes.

Preceding this was a dawn 5km run-cum-walk along the chalky cliffs overlooking Freshwater Bay, tracing a route from the Needles and peaking at Tennyson's monument. I have to confess to retching at the halfway point to the monument – a regrettable discharge of the light brigade. But that only served to sharpen my appetite for a breakfast of home-grown raspberries and yogurt and poached pears with honey, followed by a couple of Aga-fried eggs.

There was also boxing training in the music room – we used to fight when we were hunter-gatherers of course – that included skipping (of sorts on my part), plank presses, squats and burpees before a session pounding the pads. If it sounds exhausting, it really was. The programme is graded for all levels of fitness, and Paul and Ro are exceptionally encouraging and enthusiastic coaches. Even though it often felt like murder at the time, and my body was crying out for mercy, as soon as I caught my breath and stopped sweating I felt more relaxed and re-energised than I had for years.

Obviously science and machines have helped extend our life expectancy somewhat beyond that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors – not to mention the noticeable lack of threat from sabre-toothed tigers pacing the savannahs of our isles. Even so, I left a little righteous and a lot inspired. So much so that when I returned home I raced for the wilds of Tooting Common for the first time in years. And I aim to keep on going. After maybe one final fag. Just kidding. I hope.

Essentials

The first UK Wildfitness three-day break is 12-15 April, with prices from £650 for a standard shared room (020 3286 4886; wildfitness.com). Andy Pietrasik travelled to the Isle of Wight with Wightlink (0871 376 1000; wightlink.co.uk) on its 40-minute Portsmouth-Fishbourne crossing, one of three routes. A super-saver fare (for a car and four people) costs from £47 for up to four nights away

The biggest and brashest festival in the Alps; how to find affordable accommodation in London this summer; and last-minute romantic breaks

Take me there: Snowbombing in Austria

Now in its 12th year, Snowbombing has snowballed to become the biggest, brashest and arguably the best festival in the Alps, attracting 6,000 revellers to the Tyrolean town of Mayrhofen for a week of live music, snowboarding and naked Jacuzzis. Dizzee Rascal has just been announced as the headline act (following a late cancellation from Snoop Dogg) and other highlights include a Fat Boy Slim street party, Arctic Disco in a huge igloo and ski lessons from Eddie the Eagle. Packages from £615 including accommodation, lift pass, festival wristband and return coach travel from London. Hurry, as tickets are expected to sell out (9-14 April; snowbombing.com).

Travel clinic: Where to stay in London during the Olympics

The dilemma We have friends coming over from Ireland for the Olympics. They've asked us to fix up their accommodation – something affordable that will give them "a taste of the real London". Help! Barbara and John, Warrington

Joanne replies A great way to get under the skin of a city and avoid rip-off hotel charges during the Olympics is to rent a private apartment. Two websites launched in the UK last year are making this easier – housetrip.com, which lists more than 700 apartments in London, and viveunique.com, which specialises in the city and has 200 vetted homes, from Hoxton loft conversions to Chelsea garden flats, with prices from £85 per night.

Would your friends consider a home swap? Come July there will be no shortage of Londoners looking to escape the Olympic mayhem. The recently launched lovehomeswap.com has a tantalising array of properties on offer, and the only outlay is the £99 annual membership fee. You can also find home swaps on The Guardian's home exchange site.

If they are serious about seeing the city through a Londoner's eyes, they could opt for a home stay, renting a room or apartment in a private house. The website airbnb.com has 3,000 listings for London, with user reviews and prices from £20 a night.

• If you have a travel dilemma, email Joanne O'Connor at
magazine@observer.co.uk.

Three of the best… romantic Valentine's retreats

Don't panic. There's still time to treat your sweetheart to a romantic break next week. Here are three quirky love nests which are available for Valentine's Day

1. Boulangerie, Paris
They don't come much sweeter than this suite in a former bakery near the Eiffel Tower. From £83 per night (holidaylettings.co.uk/149086)

2. The Three Sisters, Tallinn
The Old Town oozes romance and this historic hotel makes the ultimate cosy retreat. From €226 (threesistershotel.com)

3. The Boathouse at Knotts End, Ullswater
On the lake shore, this 19th-century boathouse makes a stylish, secluded bolthole for two. £185 per night (i-escape.com)

Heathrow flights grounded and motorists warned of dangerous driving conditions as Met Office issues severe weather warning

Around 400 flights from Heathrow will be cancelled due to snow and freezing fog, while motorists have been warned they face a "dangerous cocktail of driving conditions" as the big chill takes hold of the country. Forecasters have said they expect the freezing weather to last for several days.

Parts of the UK have been placed on amber alert, the Met Office's second-highest severe weather warning, until 9am on Sunday and most parts of the country will wake up to a blanket of snow, with up to 15cm forecast in some places. Southern Scotland and parts of Wales were badly hit before the snow moved across south-east England.

Heathrow's chief operating officer, Normand Boivin, said the decision to introduce a revised flight schedule before snow had actually fallen had been taken in an effort to minimise disruption. British Airways said it would allow passengers booked on Sunday flights to rebook for journeys between Monday and Thursday. Southern Railways reported it was reducing services on some of its routes on Sunday.

The cold snap has already seen daytime temperatures fall four or five degrees lower than average for February. A temperature of -10.6C was recorded in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, at 2am on Saturday, and of -10.3C in Benson, Oxfordshire, making it the coldest night of the year so far.

"We have got a band of rain, sleet and snow pushing in from western parts," said Met Office forecaster Michael Lawrence. "This is running over colder air and that's going to give some fairly significant snowfall, mainly in eastern and central parts of Britain and – to some extent – large parts of the UK."

While the worst snowfall will be restricted to Cumbria, Lincolnshire, East Anglia and the Midlands, many other regions will still get significant falls of between 5cm and 10cm. Wales and the south-west, along with parts of western Scotland, will mostly see rain, however, as will Northern Ireland.

The freeze, which is likely to continue this week, is also expected to cause treacherous conditions on the roads. "It looks like we're going to get a dangerous cocktail of driving conditions this weekend, with heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures making the roads extremely treacherous," said Kevin Andrews of the RAC.

The RAC said it was attending 70% more breakdowns than normal. The AA added it had been called out to deal with more than 4,300 vehicles on Saturdaymorning and the figure was expected to reach 16,000 by the end of the day, almost double the 8,500 callout for a typical Saturday. Motorists were also advised to take shovels, warm clothes and fully charged phones on their journeys.

The Local Government Association pledged that an army of council staff and volunteers would be ready to brave the conditions to make sure vulnerable people were cared for. It said: "Thousands of new grit bins have been placed in estates and side streets, residents have been given their own bags of salt along with salt spreaders in some neighbourhoods, and arrangements have been made with parish councils, community groups, snow wardens and farmers to grit hard to reach areas. Information about school closures and bin collections is also being updated regularly online."

British Gas added that its fleet of all-weather 4x4s was on standby to get engineers out to customers. The company said it had received more than 200,000 calls in the last five days, compared with 120,000 to 140,000 during a normal winter week, and was expecting a further 50,000 this weekend, compared with 20,000 normally in the winter.

The Department for Transport has said it is better prepared than ever for severe winter weather. Salt stocks across Britain stand at more than 2.4m tonnes – a million more than last year.

However, the charity Age UK warned that it was a dangerous time for older people. Besides the risk of flu, low temperatures raise blood pressure, putting people at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Among yesterday's sporting fixtures that were postponed because of the weather were Portsmouth's game against Hull and Doncaster's match against Reading.

In League One, Bournemouth against Exeter, Sheffield United's clash at Colchester, Oldham versus Leyton Orient and Charlton against Rochdale were also postponed as were Preston's game against Brentford, Stevenage's trip to Notts County, and the Bury versus Hartlepool match. Walsall's trip to Scunthorpe also fell foul of the weather.

In Scotland, Falkirk's Scottish Cup match at Ayr was called off while, of the country's league programme, only the Third Division games at East Stirling, Montrose and Queens Park went ahead.

Dredging a channel in Falmouth Bay could create jobs and bring more tourists. But the dispute will test European rules to protect ecosystems

Falmouth Bay is one of England's finest stretches of marine habitat, with a profusion of creeks that penetrate deep into the heart of the Cornish countryside, and oak woods covering the coastline. It is a distinctive, unspoiled landscape, protected by strict environmental legislation and enjoyed by thousands of tourists every summer.

But the tranquillity of Falmouth could soon be disrupted. A controversial plan to dredge a channel through part of the bay to open up the port to giant cruise ships has caused consternation among conservationists. They say the proposal could devastate the bay, in particular its beds of maerl, a coral-like algae that provides homes for a variety of sea creatures that includes crabs and scallops. This view has been backed by the Marine Management Organisation which has so far blocked the dredging plan.

The plan's supporters continue to press for action, however. They say dredging will cause little environmental damage and is crucial to a £100m port development for Falmouth that will bring hundreds of jobs to the south-west, a region badly hit by the recession. And the group has powerful backing.

In November the chancellor, George Osborne, picked on the refusal to give the go-ahead to the Falmouth project as an example of the "gold-plating of EU rules on things like habitats" that was placing ridiculous costs on British business. He urged the project's approval and set up a government review of how EU directives on habitats and birds are being applied in England. Its specific remit is to reduce environmental "burdens on business". Many conservationists fear this review, to be published in March, could lead to a dangerous relaxation of rules governing EU protection of other UK habitats.

The bid to dredge Falmouth Bay is, therefore, being watched closely. "If this project is allowed to go ahead, that could set an appalling precedent for all the other protected sites we have in the UK," said Tom Hardy, a marine conservation officer with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust which opposes the Falmouth dredging plan. "Britain's marine environment is woefully poorly protected as it is. This could open it up to all sorts of new developments justified on economic needs. It is very worrying."

Other concerned groups include the RSPB which says that slackening the rules protecting Falmouth Bay could lead to other destructive projects being approved. These include plans to develop the Humber Estuary, build an island airport in the Thames and construct a tidal barrage power plant in the Severn.

Those who back the Falmouth development plan insist the environmental issues raised by the plan have no implications for the rest of the UK. "The harbour waters in Falmouth are slowly silting up," said Captain Mark Sansom, the Falmouth Harbour Master, who has led the port development plan.

"At present, the waters there are about 5m deep at low tide. We want to dredge to make a channel that is 8.5m deep. That would allow really big cruise ships to moor at our docks. Passengers could disembark easily and enjoy trips to Land's End, Padstow and the Eden Project. Cruise companies are keen to add Falmouth to their list of UK destinations. It would be good for business in Cornwall. In addition, big ships would be able to get into our repair yards. Again that would be good for the local economy."

Last year, about 22,000 passengers – from small to medium-sized cruise ships that can still get into Falmouth docks – visited the town. Some took coach tours to other Cornish destinations. Others thronged to visit shops selling local art and tourist goods. "If we can get the really big cruise ships in then we will get 100,000 a year into the town," added Sansom. "Many of these visitors will be German or American tourists with a lot of money to spend."

Dredging the harbour will also be accompanied by new dock construction and the building of a marina at Falmouth, according to the development plan. However, its backers insist that these other proposals depend completely on the deepening of the harbour waters. "This project could bring up to 800 extra jobs to Falmouth and also protect the 450 existing jobs here," added Sansom.

The project's key drawback lies with the fact that the proposed channel cuts through some of the bay's maerl beds. "Maerl is a form of seaweed that dies, calcifies and forms layers that have nooks and hollows in which all sorts of sea creatures – including juvenile fish and shellfish – make their homes," said Hardy. "It is an extremely important habitat and an economically valuable one. These beds are nurseries for crabs and scallops, for example."

The maerl beds at Falmouth were a key factor in designating the bay a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. As a result, when Falmouth Harbour Commissioners applied to dredge the channel they were turned down by the Marine Management Organisation – even though the new channel would affect only 2% of the bay's maerl beds. The decision dismayed many local businessmen.

"The environmental consequences have, to date, been the only ones considered by decision makers. That upsets me," said Pete Fraser, owner of Falmouth's Harbour Lights fish and chip restaurant. "We live in extremely challenging economic times, and the proposed dredging would be a massive boost to the struggling Cornish economy."

Others disagree. "The material dredged up to make the channel would be dumped in another part of Falmouth Bay, right on top of one of our best fishing grounds," said fisherman Chris Bean. "We get lots of really good quality cod, haddock, whiting and pollock there. The bay's fishing grounds would be ruined if dredging went ahead."

At present, the channel plan remains on hold. However, a project by Plymouth University scientists – set to begin in April – will attempt to discover if the harbour's maerl beds could be relocated in the bay without causing major disruption to the sea creatures who make homes in them. If the plan is feasible, the MMO could very well relent and approve the project. However, if the maerl relocation plan is rated a non-starter by the scientists, then the project will remain on hold – until the habitat directives review is completed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

By slackening how the EU habitat directive is implemented, and giving business more influence over the outcome, the goverment could allow the Falmouth dredging – and many other projects – to proceed. "This could be the thin end of the wedge," added Tom Hardy. "It won't just be Falmouth dock development that gets the go-ahead but a lot of other unpleasant projects."

• Snowfall of up to 15cm and temperatures down to -9C
• Met Office issues amber weather warning
• Heathrow cancels a third of Sunday flights

Heavy snowfall is expected across much of Britain, prompting Heathrow to cancel around a third of Sunday's flights.

An amber weather warning – the second-highest level – was issued by the Met Office, with snowfalls of up to 15cm expected, along with daytime temperatures as low as -9C.

Heathrow announced a reduced flight schedule to "minimise the disruption to passengers" caused by ice, snow and freezing fog but said it anticipated more than 70% of passengers would still be able to travel as airlines would transfer them between flights. The revised timetable was due to appear on the airport's website at around 6pm and passengers were advised to contact their airline for more information.

Heathrow's chief operating officer, Normand Boivin, said: "This decision ensures that the greatest number of passengers can fly with the minimum amount of disruption."

Latest forecasts suggest snow will fall at Heathrow from 5pm on Saturday until 6am on Sunday, with the heaviest dump between 9pm and 3am.

Gatwick said it was expecting the most heavy snowfall at around midnight when there were just a handful of flights.

A spokeswoman said there were no plans, as yet, to cancel flights on Sunday but the weather would be closely monitored.

Met Office forecaster Steve Randall said average snowfall would be 4-8cm (1.5-3.5in), including in London, but some easterly parts and high areas could expect 15cm. "There is a band of rain moving eastwards and this will turn to snow and sleet," he said.

The rain, sleet and snow will be replaced by dry and frosty weather overnight with black ice expected to be an additional hazard in many areas. The north and west of England, together with Wales and western Scotland could expect rain instead of snow, and milder temperatures.

The amber weather alert applies to Yorkshire and Humber, the west Midlands, east Midlands, east and south-west England, as well as London and south-east England, and north-west England. A yellow alert, which warns people to "be aware", was in place for parts of Scotland, Wales and north-west England.

The deep freeze has seen daytime temperatures plummet four or five degrees lower than average for February – traditionally the coldest month of the year.

Overnight, temperatures fell to -12C in Benson, Oxfordshire.

The Department for Transport's salt stocks across Britain stood at more than 2.4m tonnes – a million more than last year.

The AA said it had been called out to more than 4,300 breakdowns so far this morning – around 1,500 an hour – and it expected this figure to reach up to 16,000 by the end of the day. This is almost double the 8,500 of a usual Saturday.

A spokesman said most breakdowns occurred because of flat batteries, which produce less power in low temperatures.

The Highways Agency extended its own amber alert until 9am tomorrow, meaning there was a "high probability" of severe snow affecting the road network and a risk of adverse driving conditions.

A Local Government Association spokesman said council staff and volunteers would be checking to see whether vulnerable people were being cared for, and people were being encouraged to call in on elderly neighbours.

"Motorists are being advised to check the latest weather and gritting updates on council websites and 'gritter Twitter' feeds, as well as refresh themselves on winter driving guidance and what to stock in their car," he said.

British Gas said it had received more than 200,000 calls in the last five days, compared with 120,000-140,000 during a normal winter week.

A string of sporting events have fallen victim to the icy conditions, with Portsmouth's home match against Hull City becoming the first Championship fixture cancelled due to a frozen pitch. Several matches in the lower leagues had already been called off.

Racing was heavily hit, with meetings at Ffos Las, Sandown and Wetherby cancelled. Sunday's meeting at Kempton will be subject to an inspection because of the threat of overnight snow.

But swimmers were not deterred by ice on the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park and gritted their teeth as they plunged into its chilly waters.