Met Office warns of more heavy snow over the next few days as government rejects charges of complacency
- The Guardian,
Christmas travel plans for thousands of families were in disarray last night as snow virtually shut Heathrow airport, with officials warning of further disruption "in the days that follow".
Stranded passengers slept on terminal floors while others sought hotel rooms as all arrivals were cancelled yesterday and just seven flights allowed out.
The travel misery was also shared in Paris by more than a thousand travellers, including hundreds of Britons, who were stranded at Gare du Nord station last night after at least eight rail services were cancelled by Eurostar, which switched to a contingency timetable after France was also hit by severe weather.
As the Met Office warned of more heavy snow in parts of Britain, Royal Mail pledged up to 14,000 extra delivery rounds – weather permitting – to 2m homes over the next four evenings in an attempt to clear the huge Christmas postbag.
Retail experts warned of empty supermarkets if conditions did not improve and deliveries struggled to get through.
The treacherous conditions are believed to have played a part in the deaths of at least three people in recent days.
The transport secretary, Philip Hammond, rejected charges of complacency from Labour, and said the government was consulting its chief scientific officer over whether long-term investment was required.
Forecasters said abnormally low temperatures would continue until New Year, with severe weather warnings issued last night for Yorkshire and the north-east.
At Heathrow, planes were frozen into their parking stands in -5C temperatures on Saturday night, with a team of several hundred called in to remove hundreds of tonnes of snow.
On one of its busiest weekends, an estimated 400,000 passengers were due to fly into or out of the airport. Those with flights booked were advised not to turn up at the airport.
A Heathrow spokesman said the airport hoped to be operational today, but there would be a knock-on effect. "There will be further cancellations and delays as we continue to clear snow and ice, as well as in the days that follow, as airlines move diverted aircraft and crew back to their normal positions," he said.
"We ask passengers to check with their airlines before travelling to the airport, and we will provide regular updates and contact numbers through heathrowairport.com. This morning we listened carefully to the advice of our airside operations team, and reluctantly judged that while Heathrow's northern runway remains clear, the change in temperature overnight led to a significant buildup of ice on parking stands around the planes, and this requires parts of the airfield to remain closed until it is safe to move planes around."
Hundreds of staff had been drafted in to hand out blankets, food and water to those stuck in terminals. BA confirmed that "several thousand" of its stranded passengers were being put up in hotels. Asked if they were likely to get to their Christmas destinations, a spokeswoman said: "We are in the hands of the weather." BAA meanwhile came under pressure from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who phoned the airport authority's chief executive, Colin Matthews, to voice concerns about Heathrow's capacity to cope with the wintry weather.
He questioned whether BAA was doing everything possible to get the airport moving and whether it had sufficient staff and equipment to deal with the deluges of snow and disruptions.
"I stressed the huge economic importance of Heathrow. If there was a war on we'd surely be able to sort this out," he said.
"Most people realise that it has not snowed at Heathrow for some time so it is vital everything is done to get the aircraft and passengers moving again."
Gatwick, the country's second busiest airport, was running with a severely reduced service after closing for part of Saturday, while Stansted, Luton, Birmingham and other regional airports were open, but warning of delays. The first of two new snow ploughs arrived early on Saturday at the airport, which said it had spent £8m to double its fleet of snow clearing equipment from 47 to 95 vehicles.
In London, where heavy snow settled on Saturday, Transport for London said it had a "fleet of 38 gritters and 10 quad bikes at work throughout the night, spreading almost 500 tonnes of grit".
Thames Water reported a "near fourfold" rise in the number of burst pipes.
The Highways Agency said it was doing its best to keep roads in England clear. But its spokesman, Jon Caudwell, said motorists should "really seriously consider" whether they needed to go out.
Calls were coming in to the AA at 800 an hour, as its president, Edmund King, warned many roads were still treacherous and urged the highway authorities to "plough and grit" as many as possible.
The M25 was closed in both directions between junctions five and six for much of yesterday after a tanker overturned, with diversions on the A25 and A21 meaning motorists between Kent and Surrey faced long delays.
Retail analysts warned that some shops could run short of supplies. Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHSGlobal Insight, said: "If this weather persists it is going to be very disruptive to deliveries to supermarkets.
Supply chains have been massively hit by the snow and ice this month, with many products being stuck at container ports for an extended period."
Online supermarket Ocado suffered a "small number of cancellations" in Kent and Surrey over the weekend, while Marks & Spencer was confident goods sold so far online would arrive in time for Christmas, but was no longer guaranteeing new orders in time, with the exception of flowers and assorted items such as chilled hampers. Alan Johnson, the shadow chancellor, was scathing about the government's response. People were being told to "get a shovel or stay at home", he said. Salt supplies were arriving in "dribs and drabs" when "they should have been here now".
"It is a false economy if you think because budgets are squeezed you will cut back on salt supplies … because you damage the economy," he told Sky News.
But Hammond argued that providing "absolute certainty" of no disruption would cost vast sums. If such extreme weather were to be more regular then some major improvements could be made, he added. A government-ordered review on measures for coping with a prolonged freeze, by David Quarmby, chair of the RAC Foundation, is due to be published on Tuesday.
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