Birmingham brought to a halt by snow

Feb 5 2009 By Mark Cowan, Kat Keogh and Victoria Farncombe

Solihull Council implemented a blanket closure of all schools and colleges due to the severe weather conditions.

Fresh deliveries of grit overnight, including 300 tonnes of salt from the Highways Agency, topped up the salt dome at Birmingham’s Thimblemill Lane Depot in Aston.

Council sources said it meant the gritting lorries were able to get out on the main roads before the snow fell.

But the gritting appeared to have failed on some major routes with parts of the city’s ring road covered in ice at 6am.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said it had seen a steady stream of incidents due to the icy weather conditions this morning.

Bosses said staff have been working incredibly hard to maintain services with a large number of staff giving up their day off to assist.

The service appealed to people to take care in these treacherous conditions, asking them to take simple steps to keep safe and warm to avoid injury and illness.

Chief Operating Officer, Rob Ashford, said: “The Trust is asking the public where possible to stay in and don’t make unnecessary journeys. Although many of the main roads have been gritted, the conditions on some minor routes are very difficult.”

The Midland Metro was running as normal and London Midland, which runs trains directly from Birmingham New Street to London Euston and across the region on the Cross City Line said there were minimal disruptions across the Midlands.

But spokesman Richard Lakin said: “We have told people that those planning on travelling to London should only do so if it is absolutely necessary.

“In the West Midlands we were fortunate enough to get quite a few of our trains out of the depot before the snow fell, which means we only have minimal disruptions, but that was not the case in London.

“They woke up and found the snow was already there.”