RESIDENTS woke up to find a layer of snow settled across north Essex.

Commuters faced chaos to get to work on both trains and on the road, while some pupils got a day off school.

A series of accidents and broken down vehicles led to major delays on the A12, while there have also been accidents in Bakers Lane, Colchester, the A133 in Frating, and Little Tey Road in Feering.

Meanwhile delays of at least 45 minutes are affecting commuters travelling from Colchester to London Liverpool Street, while there are further waits for those travelling between Colchester and Harwich.

Most north Essex schools stayed open, but those closing because of the weather included the Gilberd, Tiptree's Thurstable school, St Peter's Primary in Coggeshall and Southview school in Witham.

Essex County Council is advising residents not to take unnecessary risks as heavy snow affects roads and transport services, and to only travel if it is essential.

The Lunchtime Meals service, which operates in mid Essex, has told elderly residents they will get meals today.

The county’s fleet of 65 winter gritters are operating at full strength to treat more than 1800 miles of the county’s main roads. The network was treated twice overnight with a further run taking place this morning, Tuesday.

Decisions on further runs will be taken during today, depending on dedicated forecasts from the Council’s own weather service and readings from road side temperatures across the county.

The county council is required to focus its gritting resources on keeping major roads clear, so it operates a precautionary salting network. This includes all ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads, access routes for emergency services, rural link roads and major public transport routes.

To help prevent falls and accidents, borough and district councils have formally agreed to help Essex County Council, which is in charge of gritting. Colchester Council staff will be taking control of clearing town centre pathways and pavements, as well as helping to grit minor roads, where requested by the county council.

Colchester Council has a new winter services section on its website, www.colchester.gov.uk, which will inform people which roads and pavements have been gritted, and how recently.

There is also a list of locations of salt bins across the borough. Boxted has this year been chosen to take part in a pilot scheme aimed at making rural gritting more efficient. Instead of agreeing to a parish council request for an extra salt bin, the county council has delivered a tonne bag of sand and salt mix.

It will be held by a nominated person, who will aim to distribute it where it’s most needed.

If the approach works well, it will be introduced more widely next winter.

The parish council is still finalising who the nominated person will be.

Christopher Arnold, Colchester councillor for Fordham and Stour, which covers Boxted, said: “It’s a very good idea because people know locally where the worst places are and they will be able to put down the salt when it is urgently needed.”

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