Buses in West Leeds are being heavily disrupted by snow, with services being halted this afternoon.
Police have warned people to avoid driving where possible, with buses across the city stranded as roads become unpassable.
More details on the Metro travel website.
Due to heavy snow creating unsafe driving and walking conditions on many residential streets, and with the forecast for further heavy snowfall, refuse collections have been stood down for the remainder of today.
Those residents who didn’t get their bins emptied today are advised to put their bins out again for a planned Sunday collection, when crews will try to collect as many missed bins as possible.
Also closing early today are all Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs). Residents with a slot booked today are advised to re-book. A council spokesperson said:
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused but the decision has been made in the interests of customer and staff safety and also following police travel advice.”
Leeds City Council staff will be continuing to work throughout the day to ensure that primary routes in the city and areas around key facilities such as vaccination centres continue to be gritted.
Gritting of primary routes – around 800 miles of road – took place at 4.30am and 8am this morning, with pre-emptive grits at 4pm and 7.30pm yesterday.
A total of 30 gritters were still doing the rounds this afternoon, supported by 11 tractor snowploughs with drivers from the council’s Parks and Countryside team.
Staff are out and about making sure grit bins are well stocked and also responding to reports of problems on footways, while mini-gritters and tractors are being used on some of the city’s secondary routes.
Across the board, the council currently has around 100 staff dealing directly with snow-related issues.
Despite the huge efforts made last night and today by the council’s gritting teams, the continuing snow and sub-zero road surface temperatures mean some disruption to journeys has sadly been unavoidable.
Additional gritting efforts have been focused on the areas around the city’s primary care network Covid-19 vaccination centres.
Around 100 schools have closed as a result of the weather. For a full list, visit the schools section of the council website.