Snow let up in icy grip on Lothians

With more snow and freezing temperatures on the way, council chiefs have again been left struggling trying to keep anything but main roads clear.

Some schools were due to reopen today but widespread disruption looked set to continue on the roads as many workers return from the St Andrew's break.

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NHS Lothian is understood to have asked the city council for help in moving bed- blocking patients out to care homes or back into the community as it attempts to relieve pressure on its hospitals.

The Met Office in Scotland said it expected daytime temperatures in Edinburgh to remain around freezing throughout today, dropping as low as -7C in places tonight and -12C tomorrow night.

NHS Lothian chief executive James Barbour called city council chief executive Tom Aitchison yesterday to ask for assistance freeing up beds in hospitals including Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Council chiefs are now looking at how they can take on more referrals from hospitals at their crisis care facilities and provide home care services for those ready to leave hospital.

Professor Charles Swainson, NHS Lothian's medical director, said today he was confident the board could cope.

But he added: "It is important that people with minor ailments help themselves as much as possible and reduce unnecessary additional pressures on our hospitals."

The council said it was coping with the weather, and said it was considering handing out food packages if there was no let-up in the conditions.

During a prolonged period of wintry weather in January, the council handed out around 500 hampers containing basic food essentials worth 30.

The council said staff had been working tirelessly to help those affected by the weather, including the Pentland Rangers lending their vehicles to help transport home care staff around the city.

A council spokesman said: "Numerous staff have battled through the wintry weather to get to the frail, elderly or disabled people who rely on care being provided in their home.

"We have been contacting hundreds of service users to check if they need support with their personal care and have supplies of food."We have also provided a shopping service for those who have been assessed as needing one."

He added: "Other responses such as a provision of food parcels will be considered should the severe weather be prolonged."

While some schools were re-opening, teachers who could not make it into their own school were asked to go to the school closest to their homes.

Elsewhere, complaints were flooding in from across the city from residents left stranded.

Mr Aitchison admitted that the council had been unable to tackle much more than the "priority one" roads. He said: "We have only been able to grit category one roads because once they are clear we have to go and start again, so clearly there have been problems on category two and three roads."

This has left people struggling to get to work however, and in Wester Hailes a group of local residents found themselves clearing a thick blanket of snow and ice from Clovenstone Drive.

Local resident Dave Baxter said the council response had been unacceptable. "We called up the council yesterday to tell them about the state of the road, but they don't want to know," he said. "They might not consider this a priority, but people here have to get out to work, they have be able to use the road and they pay their council tax like everyone else. I have been at this for hours, as have a lot of people, and it's unacceptable that the council can't even send one of their ploughs here."

There was continued disruption for travellers, with bus and train services affected by the weather and Edinburgh Airport staying closed for much of yesterday morning and closed again this morning.

Despite a 1 million investment in new snow clearing and de-icing equipment since last year, just a handful of flights have been able to operate in the past two days.

A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: "We've seen unprecedented levels of snow in the past few days and it has been a challenge to keep everything open. The situation would have been worse without the new equipment."

The AA said that it had its busiest-ever November day on Monday across the UK and one of the busiest days in its 105-year history, with close to 25,000 call-outs.

Meanwhile, East Lothian, West Lothian and Midlothian councils confirmed that all schools would be closed again today due to the bad weather.

Forecaster Peter Sloss said today would continue to see winds from the north-east bringing snow showers from the North Sea into the Edinburgh area.

"This evening and overnight the showers that do come along will be mostly light, and into tomorrow we'll keep the cool air going, with light north easterly winds.

"It will be minus six or seven overnight tonight with daytime temperatures tomorrow much the same as today, struggling to get above zero on the coast, with a maximum of perhaps plus one.

"Tomorrow, high pressures will build across Scotland and we'll lose the north-east wind later in the day. There will be some very light snow showers through the day tomorrow and they die away later on Thursday with a dry day to come on Friday - sunny, but with temperatures still struggling to get above freezing on the coast. On Thursday night and Friday morning, temperatures will drop to minus 12 in parts of the Lothians.

"The end of the week will be mainly dry, but the cold is set to continue into next week."