Snow causes chaos across Calderdale
Heavy snow caused chaos across Calderdale sending hundreds of school children home and leaving motorists in gridlock. The snow fell throughout the district on Tuesday night and continued into the evening on Wednesday causing bus services to be cancelled and schools to close.
More than 32 schools across the borough shut for the day.
Crossley Heath head teacher Wendy Moffat said: “We decided to close the school at 12.30pm on Wednesday.
“Due to continual snowfall during the morning and the forecast of this continuing into the afternoon we decided that this course of action would be in the best interests of staff and students to ensure that they got home safely.”
Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team was placed on stand-by during the day and supported emergency services.
The team was called to a house on Heptonstall Road, Hebden Bridge after an 83-year-old man fell and sustained knee injuries.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service was called to Mount Pleasant, Todmorden, to give urgent assistance to a casualty suffering from chest pains.
Clinical lead of Calderdale Royal Hospital Accident and Emergency department Mark Davies, said: “Our overall numbers at CRH were down but we still admitted the same number of patients as usual.
“We thank people for staying away where possible in such bad conditions which enabled our teams to care for very poorly patients and pa- tients with emergencies.”
West Yorkshire Police received a high volume of calls relating to youths throwing snowballs and warned that it can be fun but also to be careful as it can be dangerous.
All major roads around the borough had been gritted yesterday (Thursday) and will continue to be monitored over the weekend.
Waste and recycling collections are currently running one day late for refuse and up to two days for recycling, with crews working on Saturday to catch up.
The weekend forecast is for mild and cloudy weather with temperatures rising to 8C.