Deep snowfalls crippled Croydon earlier this year due to a lack of trained staff and poor equipment, a report revealed.
Croydon was left paralysed and its residents cut off from when over a foot of snow fell on February 2.
The freak snow fall brought public transport to a halt, closed schools and businesses and hundreds of miles of roads and footpaths needed gritting as the council ran low on salt supplies.
Staff were unable to get into work affecting all the council services.
The report released this week notes there was not enough good quality salt to effectively grit the roads and not enough notice was taken of severe weather warnings.
Poorly trained staff were forced to shovel snow off footpaths with broken shovels.
Veolia, the Council’s street cleaning contractor responsible for the salting of footpaths had problems with less than 50 per cent of their staff able to get to work on February 2 and 3.
The report said: “Even with the maximum number of street cleansing operatives (145) resources would have been inadequate to clear all priority footpaths.”
Despite the shortcomings Mr Rouse praised the efforts of his staff.
“Many rose magnificently to the challenge. They walked miles to get in, they slept over to keep services going, they were creative, flexible and responsive. Without their efforts the effects of the snow would have been much worse.”
To prevent similar chaos occurring again this year, an emergency team will be set up to deal with any other winter emergencies, there will be a vehicle tracking and satellite navigation system for gritting vehicles to improve efficiency, and four new gritters will be bought in preparation for this winter.
Moves are also being made to ensure contractors are willing to help the council in snow and ice clearance and staff are properly trained.
The report also recommends the council’s website should be made “fit for purpose” to display and provide easy access to basic information such as street cleaning or gritting schedules or updates on service delivery.
Council leader Mike Fisher said: “This report shows we have taken very seriously the lessons learned from last winter, and I am grateful for the role scrutiny has had in highlighting the issue.
“We are not suggesting that if we have another prolonged blizzard everything will work perfectly.
"But the exceptional experience in February was a wake up call.”
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