TRIBUTES AS CARE WORKER FOUND DEAD IN SNOW

Woman fell ill on way to work

TRIBUTES have been paid to a care worker who died on her way to work as snow gripped Glasgow.

Police are treating the death of Elaine McNeill in the Milton area as “unexplained.”

A colleague said of Ms McNeill: “She was a lovely person.”

DISRUPTION to travel, health and council services was continuing across the West of Scotland today, evern after a severe weather warning was downgraded.

A number of rail and bus services in the amber alert area were suspended throughout the morning over concerns for safety of staff and passengers.

First Glasgow said buses were in operation, however it was unable to service Springburn, Drumchapel and Clydebank.

But Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said roads teams would need time to make routes safe even after the Met Office snow warning expired at 10am and advised motorists to avoid travel.

A yellow “be aware” warning of snow is still in place across Scotland until 11.55pm tomorrow and across some parts of the country over the weekend into Monday.

The extreme weather has seen health boards across Scotland cancel non-essential operations and outpatient appointments on Friday, while NHS 24 has described its operations as being “stretched”.

Princess Royal Maternity Hospital in Glasgow also saw tiles fly from its roof under pressure from the extreme weather.

As difficult conditions are set to continue, flights at Scotland’s busiest airports were facing another day of disruption and cancellations.

Glasgow Airport re-opened today but passengers were warned to only travel to the airport once they had checked the status of their flight with the airline.

ScotRail said no services would be running through the amber alert area until tests were carried out on tracks, while Virgin Trains said its west coast route to Scotland could be closed while services on its eastern line would be limited.

Glasgow School of Art has been closed until Monday and both Glasgow University and Glasgow Caledonian University remained shut.

Witnesses due at 15 courts in Scotland have been told not to attend after trials were cancelled over safety fears. Courts affected include Glasgow, Edinburgh, Livingston, Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline, Hamilton, Alloa, Stirling, Falkirk, Paisley, Dumbarton, Airdrie, Greenock, Perth and Coatbridge.

Council bosses said they were prioritising essential services while many staff were still unable to get to work.

Schools remained closed today, offices shut and resources concentrated on roads and care of the elderly and those most in need of support.

The council cancelled all cremations and burials in the city yesterday and affected families were informed individually of this in private.

A council spokesman said the priority was ensuring the main roads were being cleared and gritted.

West Dunbartonshire said all its schools would remain closed until Monday.

Balmore Road in the north of Glasgow was closed to traffic due to heavy snowdrifts between Boclair Road and Skirsa Street.

Police tweeted a picture of their patrol car driving beside a snowdrift as high as the vehicle and urged people to avoid the area.

They tweeted: “This is why Balmore Road is CLOSED (it normally has 2 lanes!) They are as high as one of our cars, and that’s as far as we can get up the road - they get worse. “PLEASE AVOID THIS AREA.” Nicola Sturgeon blamed irresponsible hauliers for contributing to the jam that trapped hundreds of drivers on a motorway on Wednesday night. The First Minister said “far too many” heavy goods vehicles had been on the M80 despite the red weather warning because of blizzard conditions.

She stressed she was not blaming the drivers, but said some companies had been wrong to put lorries on the roads for non-essential tasks.

Meanwhile, the STUC said it had