Schools remain closed as ice warnings take effect

Hundreds of schools across the country will remain closed for a third day as snow continues to grip the north east of Scotland.

Yellow warnings for snow and ice will continue in the north throughout Wednesday, with ice alerts extending to almost all of Scotland.

Aberdeenshire Council declared a “major incident” on Tuesday after days of weather warnings brought widespread disruption.

All schools in Aberdeenshire and Moray, and the majority of schools in Aberdeen will be closed again on Wednesday.

Around 65 schools in the Highlands will also stay closed on the first day of their new term.

But improving conditions in some areas mean schools in the Western Isles and Shetland as well as some in Orkney will reopen.

Around 350 schools across Scotland were impacted on Tuesday.

Ministers heard from police, local authorities, utilities companies and other bodies on Tuesday as the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room discussed the response to the severe weather.

Justice Secretary Angela Constance, who chaired the meeting, said afterwards that “difficult conditions” were expected to remain this week, and she urged people to follow advice on staying safe.

“Warnings for ice across much of the country are in place overnight into tomorrow so it is vital that people plan ahead to help protect the resilience and safety of the transport network,” she said.

She added that “good progress” had been made to restore transport services and all trunk roads were fully functioning.

Despite the warnings, milder temperatures are expected on Wednesday with wintry showers expected in the north, falling as rain or sleet near the coasts.

Further south, it will be dry with spells of sunshine despite a chill in the air.

The weather alert will remain in place until midnight for the north and north east, but will expire at 10:00 for the rest of the country.

Forecasters advise that icy conditions, especially on untreated roads, could cause minor disruption on Wednesday morning.

More weather warnings for snow have been issued for the south of England on Thursday and Friday as Storm Goretti, the first named storm of the year, arrives but Scotland looks set to avoid the brunt of that.

Some places in the northern Scotland have now had fresh snowfall every day since the start of the new year.

Aberdeenshire Council’s decision to declare a major incident means it can redeploy staff to try to get on top of the challenge.

Chief executive Jim Savege said: “The declaration of the incident is mainly an internal mechanism for the council that allows me to divert more staff and resources towards priority activity than we’ve been doing already.”

He said it would also help with requests for mutual aid from other councils.

“So we’ve got more staff deployed for example to work on road clearance and footway clearance and we’ve got additional kit coming in from other local authorities as well.”

The co- leader of Aberdeen City Council, Ian Yuill, told BBC Scotland News it had been the most intense and sustained period of snow he could remember in more than 50 years.

He said the authority had 15 snowploughs out on the roads, 14 pavement ploughs – and had hired in another 24 diggers to clear the snow.

He said: “The big challenge this time is it has continued to snow – so every time it snows both the pavement ploughs and the road ploughs have to go back out again to re-treat and re-plough the priority roads and pavements in the city.”

Snow gates were closed overnight on the A93 Braemar to Glenshee and on the B974 at Cairn O’Mount and the A939 at Cock Bridge, with Police Scotland urging drivers to avoid these areas.

Network Rail said it had been able to clear the Aberdeen- Inverness line by Tuesday evening, despite its teams encountering some “appalling conditions” around Insch.

A large snow plough would continue working to clear the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh line where drifts were up to 1.2m deep in places, it said.

The train operator LNER, which runs the east coast mainline, has extended its advice to passengers not to travel between Edinburgh and Aberdeen as they “cannot guarantee” trains will operate until Friday at the earliest.

A spokeswoman for the AA said its teams had attended almost 13,000 breakdowns across the UK by 16:00 on Tuesday while the RAC said drivers in the worst-hit areas “need to be considering whether it’s safe to get behind the wheel”.

Police Scotland said the impact of the snow is still likely to be felt over the next few days in the north and north-east of Scotland, and urged people to check up on those who might be vulnerable.

Assistant chief constable Alan Waddell said: “Local resilience partnerships are continuing to meet to co-ordinate and deliver the response to disruption experienced by communities in the north and north-east of Scotland following heavy snowfall over the weekend.

“Some services may be impacted by adverse weather and I would encourage the public to check on neighbours or relatives, if they are able to do so safely.”