Following the severe weather in the last 24 hours there have been some disruption to services. As normal, the council’s winter maintenance gritting plan is in place to reduce risk to residents and to keep roads open during times of snow and freezing conditions.

Over the past week as temperatures have dropped the council has been gritting all main routes. Following snowfall in the past 48 hours, additional gritting has been carried out.

The forecast yesterday was for light snow, and early this morning there was a heavy snowfall in the borough. At 6am today (28 Feb) the council began applying more grit to the primary and secondary roads as well as well used, main footpaths.

The council prioritises the most important areas and we grit primary routes when frost, ice or snow is expected. Secondary routes and main footpaths are gritted during snow conditions. Not surprisingly not every every road and footpath can be gritted and the focus is on areas that are most heavily used. Residents are asked to play their part by checking on elderly or vulnerable neighbours or helping to clear snow from footpaths.

The council currently has up to 60 officers working and five gritters in operation to service roads, footways across the borough. Since yesterday 628km of Ealing’s roads have been gritted with more than 330 tonnes of grit and this includes some roads multiple times. The council has a stock of 4,400 tonnes at Greenford Depot.

Waste and recycling collections have been suspended and this will be kept under review throughout the day. Street cleaners have been diverted to help the council’s highways service with the gritting of priority areas, as per the Winter Maintenance gritting plans.

A number of local schools may be closed tomorrow due to the ongoing weather conditions and and parents are advised to check with their child’s school in the morning

Due to forecasts of further bad weather, this the Great British Spring Clean events on Friday 2 March have been cancelled to ensure wellbeing of volunteers. The council will be looking to arrange some community clear-up events as soon as possible, and would advise residents to look for updates on its facebook and twitter pages.

The weather forecast indicates there might be further disruption in London tomorrow so it is possible that services will continue to be affected.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for transport, environment and leisure said: “The council is working hard to keep the borough moving during the freezing weather and have so far gritted over 600km of local roads. I urge residents to take care when out-and-about during these challenging conditions and where possible, please check on vulnerable friends or neighbours and clear snow from footpaths in your local area .”

Residents can check the council’s website for update about services during the period of snow and freezing conditions .