Gritting teams stretched to limit

HIGH winds and heavy snow has seen Kirklees Council’s gritters stretched to the limit once again.

Just two weeks on from the ‘Beast from the East’ the council’s winter team has been out in force again.

After showers throughout the day, consistent snow began to fall at about 5pm on Saturday evening and continued right through the night.

The so-called ‘Mini Beast From The East’ brought almost as much snow as its predecessor but this time gusting winds made visibility and drifts as much of a problem as snow on the ground.

Video footage of blizzard-like conditions was posted online by the council’s Kirklees Winter Twitter account.

They have shown that northern and southern parts of the borough struggled with the same problems.

Gritters tackled drifts around Upperthong, in Honley and Hunsworth, near Cleckheaton.

A spokesperson for the Kirklees Winter team said: “With the whole of Kirklees under a Met Office weather warning this weekend, our gritting team have been rather busy.

“All priority routes were gritted several times and we hand gritted Dewsbury and Huddersfield town centre pavements.

“We kept the gritters out most of Saturday evening as the snow came down.

“On Sunday we gritted and ploughed from 5am and kept the crews out over higher ground for a few hours longer.”

The crews gritted again from 4pm yesterday and kept a night patrol out looking for any problems.

The Met Office put out a yellow warning for snow and ice until midnight last night.