Severe weather conditions – 11.45am UPDATE

Whilst some of you live in countries where there is snow, weather warnings occurred on friday, and the weekend that extreme weather was coming to the UK, and yesterday evenning it started to snow.

Heathrow Airpprt is closed. Luton Airport is closed. There are no train services. The tube is not working except for the Central Line.

Most of London, experienced heavy snow overnight – with 15 centimetres falling in one hour. The local forecast for my London Borough is for 10 centimetres of snow between 12noon and 6pm. The snow may freeze tonight. Now could be a good time to contact an elderly or vulnerable neighbour to make sure they are safe and well.

Schools
54 out of 56 schools are closed in the borough today. Please contact the Headteacher of your child’s school for more information about today and tomorrow. We will also be putting a list of schools that will be closed on Tuesday 3 February on this page later this afternoon.

Roads – dealing with snow and ice
These are extraordinary weather conditions, but council has deployed dozens of staff to help keep the borough moving. However, it is unlikely that we will be able to clear all the snow or freezing ice and our advice is only travel if necessary and possible. We will continue to work today and through tonight to make life as comfortable as we can for those living and working in H&F. Council gritters are currently treating all major routes across the borough.

Children’s Services
All schools are closed

Adults’ Services
Day Centres will be closed because of the unsafe travel conditions. The council will continue to provide essential services for vulnerable elderly people.

Street cleansing
Refuse and recycling collections have been suspended today and will be rescheduled as soon as it is possible to do so. Collections will take place this week once the weather has improved. Many staff normally employed on collections have been redeployed on gritting roads and clearing snow.

Parks
All of the borough’s parks are open although staff have been diverted to gritting the main roads and paths. Parks will close at 5pm today.

I am an essential worker so am sitting in an office somehere, contemplating the snow that is still falling.

How about you? What are you doing right now?