Snow Hits The Midlands

19 January 2013, 10:27 | Updated: 21 January 2013, 14:46

More snow has hit the West Midlands with the Big Freeze expected to settle in for a while.

As well as the snow the ice is creating hazerdous conditions on the roads and pavements with West Midlands Ambulance warning people to take care when out and about.

Birmingham Airport suffered delays and cancellations after having to shut for five hours on Friday the 18th of January...click here for the latest situation on flights.

More than 500 schools shut of Friday with over a thousand closed on Monday the 21st January.

Heart put an appeal out for Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull Hospitals for locals with 4x4s to help transport clinical staff to work during the adverse weather. They had a great response:

Heartlands Hospital spokesperson said: “We have been overwhelmed by the response to our call for help in transporting clinical staff to and from the Hospital in the snow. We have received more than 80 calls from owners of 4X4 vehicles from across the region -  everywhere from Stourbridge and Tamworth through to Kenilworth and Alvechurch.

“We would like to thank all volunteers for their generosity during this challenging weather and would like to confirm we now have all our transportation covered.”

The gritters have been out dealing with major routes across the West Midlands - though it's been difficult for them to cover every road with many smaller roads going untreated. Arlene Martinez is a snow champion in her street in Birmingham and got her daughter Daniella involved in the community spirit of it all (pictured).

With the spending cuts and staff shortages they've had to turn to volunteers creating snow champions.

Mum of two Katie Lonsdale from Smethwick told Heart she's ''...Cleared the paths and cleared some of the cars out..it just puts a stop to everything doesn't it...the delivery people can't come round and the bin men can't come round, yeah everything grinds to a hault.''

''We've seen a couple of cars slide round the corner and people are splipping a bit cos the snow is lying on top of ice underneath so unless you clear the path it's going to stay that way..so yeah we've seen a few people slipping and sliding around.''

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