BRADFORD Council says it has spread around 600 tonnes of grit on district roads today as the heavy snow wreaked havoc.

The wintry conditions have caused chaos on roads in Bradford and the local authority says it has had crews out gritting since 5am today.

A Bradford Council spokesman said: “Unfortunately, we had a period of intense rainfall before the snow arrived which meant that the grit that we put down overnight wasn’t as effective as usual. This has affected many places across the whole of the north of England.

“We’ve had all our gritting crews out overnight and then again since 5am this morning trying to clear the main routes across the district.

“This has continued non-stop throughout the day and in to the evening and will continue overnight.

“We estimate that our gritter drivers will have done around 2,100 miles of ploughing and gritting across the district since the 5am start this morning.

“We have spread around 600 tonnes of grit on roads across the district since 5am.”

The council also says it also had to suspend its bin collection service due to the snow and gave an update on how its other services have been affected by the wintry weather.

 

The council spokesman added: “Due to the continued heavy snowfall we had to make the difficult decision to bring all our bin crews back to the depots to ensure everyone's safety. Please leave your bins out and we will try to catch up as soon as possible.

“Unfortunately, we also had to close all the Household Waste Recycling Centres today as we couldn't guarantee the safety of anyone visiting.

“Crews from scaled back services have been redeployed to help other services.

“Our COVID-19 home testing and community engagement teams have had to cancel visiting residents in Baildon, Thornton and Allerton today.

 

“Both our centres for asymptomatic COVID-19 testing at St George’s Hall and Airedale Shopping Centre were open earlier today, but had closed early due to low numbers and to allow staff to return home. For more information on testing visit: www.bradford.gov.uk/health/health-advice-and-support/coronavirus-testing-in-bradford-district/

“Anyone with an appointment for vaccinations will have been contacted directly if their slot had to be cancelled. If you can’t make your appointment, please let us know so it can be offered to someone else.

“The centres have been open and providing vaccinations. Bradford Council has these on its priority gritting routes to keep them open in snowy weather. However, no one should put themselves at risk if they are concerned about travelling in this weather and the NHS will make sure anyone who is unable to attend an appointment will get another opportunity as soon as possible.

“Appointments made at community pharmacies through the national booking system can be re-arranged by calling 119.

 

“We urge people to please continue to follow the Government’s advice during the national lockdown period and Stay At Home. Anyone who can work from home should already be doing this and if you can wait until another day to do things like shopping please do so.

“We are concerned that some people have been leaving their homes to meet up to go sledging or play in the snow and although we don’t want to stop people having fun, we would like to reiterate that the Government has said you must not meet socially with family or friends unless they are part of your household or support bubble.

“You can leave your home to exercise, and not for the purpose of recreation or leisure. This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.

“We want to assure people that the council and its partners are working together and doing all that we can to get services back running as usual.”