Pedestrians and drivers across Britain have spoken of their fury at a lack of grit on the roads today, with cars said to be ‘skating’ around unsalted streets.
Much of the criticism was reserved for councils in London as motorists battled to get to work safely and pedestrians slipped over on ice-rink pavements.
But there was also anger in the North East where people complained of ‘death trap’ routes – and one gritter was seen off the side of a main road in County Durham.
A snow gritter on its side on the A68 from Tow Law towards Consett in County Durham today
A gritter struggles through the streets of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in treacherous conditions
The gritter that seems to have fallen off the side of the road on the A68 in County Durham
And in Norfolk, the council admitted snowploughs should have been attached sooner to gritters, despite them working through the night to clear roads.
In London, observers told of ‘cars skating with total loss of control’ while others complained that no roads in their local area had been gritted.
Nigel Rumble tweeted: ‘Here in Hampstead this morning, going through Nassington Road. No grit anywhere. Literally as I writing this cars skating with total loss of control and traction. Only in Britain can we be so unprepared.’
Stuart Malcolm added: ‘How many gritters are in London ? Certainly no roads in SE19 have been gritted.’
Another tweeted London Mayor Sadiq Khan to say: ‘No gritters out gritting roads, pavements. #totallyfailinglondon.’
And a Twitter user in Hillingdon tweeted: ‘Any chance the gritters will be out today?’
Another Twitter user asked Haringey Council: ‘Please can you de-ice Woodfield Way and the roads nearby.
‘It’s a death trap and we have loads of old people who live on our road who are stuck inside.’
Veolia, which manages the gritting locally, replied to say: ‘All our sweepers have been deployed on pavement gritting duties and we’re doing our best to get around as much of the borough as possible with the resources we have.’
In the North East, complaints were made about slippery roads around Newcastle-upon-Tyne, while similar issues were also raised in Scotland.
One Twitter user based in Middlesbrough complained: ‘Where the f*** are all the gritters. Roads are like death traps.’
Stein Connelly, of Transport Scotland, told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘We’re seeing significant weather disruption on the network, we’ve got all our gritters out and ploughs working right throughout the day, right throughout the night, but we’re still seeing significant challenges.’
In Norfolk, Matt Worden, who is responsible for roads in the county, said he would have acted differently had he realised just how much snow would fall.
He said: ‘Since 3pm yesterday we have been out four times and we are out on our fourth run now. That is 49 routes, which is 2,200 miles each time.
‘Every time we go out, that’s 330 tonnes of material we put on the roads. With hindsight, we should have put the ploughs on the gritters sooner, which I’d have done if we had known how much snow we were going to get, but we didn’t know.
‘Conditions deteriorated from about 4am until about 9am and we’ve now got all our gritters out with ploughs. But the A11 and the A47 are solid with traffic and I’ve got two gritters stuck in traffic.
‘If I’d known last night what I do now, then I’d have had the ploughs out at 4am. But there wasn’t as much snow forecast as we’ve had.’
It comes just one month after there were a spate of car crashes in the county, the morning after the council sent a ‘gleeful’ tweet about not gritting the roads.
Today, new analysis found almost 4,000 gritters are available to tackle the cold blast hitting the UK.
Many of these vehicles can be fitted with ploughs to clear away fallen snow, but there are also 500 dedicated snow ploughs which can be mobilised to keep routes open.
A gritter tries to clear the A1 motorway near to Catterick, North Yorkshire, this morning
The A12 Colchester bypass in Essex was stationary this morning, leaving drivers frustrated
People help an elderly lady after she slipped and hurt her leg in the snow today in Hackney
The RAC Foundation, which compiled the figures, warned drivers not to expect every road to be clear of snow and ice despite the size of the fleet tackling the conditions.
The motoring research charity’s analysis of DVLA data revealed there are 3,238 gritters in England, 431 in Scotland, 105 in Wales and 64 in Northern Ireland.
England also leads the way on snow ploughs with 236, compared with 72 in Scotland and 27 in Wales. There were no figures for Northern Ireland.
Regionally, Yorkshire and Humberside has the most gritters at 795, while London has the least at 42.
Most of the vehicles are operated on behalf of councils to clear local roads or government agencies to keep motorways passable, although some are deployed elsewhere such as at airports.
Martin Tett, the Local Government Authority’s transport spokesman, said: ‘Councils remain well prepared for the cold with 1.5million tonnes of salt stockpiled and a fleet of state-of-the-art gritters ready to be deployed.
‘Highway teams are monitoring high-tech weather forecasts with highly-trained staff on standby around the clock. Gritters will be out treating thousands of miles of council roads as the big chill bites and councils will be keeping people up-to-date about weather forecasts, road conditions and gritting activity.
‘As the freeze sets in we need everyone in our communities to be on the look-out for signs that something might be wrong.
‘Whether it be milk bottles left outside, newspapers stuck in the letterbox or curtains drawn all day, any sort of unusual activity could be a sign that something is wrong and that someone is in need of help.’