Angus man caught up in M74 snow chaos.

An Arbroath man caught up in traffic chaos as snow closed part of the M74 in Lanarkshire has said authorities failed to grit the road properly.

Scottish transport minister Humza Yousaf apologised yesterday after more than 200 motorists were stranded overnight on the road.

Police closed parts of the motorway in both directions for several hours because of the wintry conditions.

Tailbacks stretched for seven miles northbound and 12 miles southbound at one stage.

Ian Lamb, from Arbroath, was a passenger in a car heading back to Scotland from Liverpool and hit traffic at Beattock on Tuesday night.

He said: “There was snow but we were making good progress north when we quite suddenly came upon a queue of traffic stationary on the motorway.

“To me, it looked like it had been caused by large lorries that weren’t able to get any further up the hill.

“We were stuck there for basically an hour.”

Mr Lamb, 69, said they were then able to begin inching forward by driving between stricken vehicles and continue their journey northward.

He went on: “Luckily a snow plough and a gritter were able to get through using the hard shoulder and we were able to follow them.”

He added: “I really think the authorities, locally and nationally, need to get their fingers out.

“It’s pretty terrible when a major network like that gets blocked so easily.”

Mr Yousaf apologised to those stranded in their vehicles.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “Let me give an apology to those commuters that would have been stuck for a number of hours in their vehicles, particularly on the M74, where it’s been a really, really challenging night.

“We knew of this, we’ve been warning of it since last week, we’ve been patrolling with gritters across the entire network but the depth of the snow, the amount of snow and the widespread nature of it frankly made it extremely, extremely challenging across the country.”

All schools in the Borders were closed due to the weather while 16 secondary schools, 58 primaries and 44 nurseries in the Highlands were also shut.

Around 20 schools in Dumfries and Galloway and 28 schools and nurseries in South Lanarkshire were also closed.

It’s pretty terrible when a major network like that gets blocked so easily. IAN LAMB