Heavy snow forces 70 Durham schools to close

Conditions have been described as "challenging"

About 70 schools have closed across County Durham due to heavy snowfall which caused "blizzard-like conditions" in some parts of the North East.

Burnside Primary School in Stanley said the weather had made roads and paths "treacherous", while others said staff could not travel as it was "unsafe".

Most pupils are learning at home due to the lockdown, but vulnerable children and those of key workers can attend.

A yellow warning for snow remains with temperatures set to drop to -8C (18F).

That forecast has raised worries of further disruption on Thursday.

Snow hit many parts of the North East including Redcar beach

Mark Readman, highway services manager at Durham County Council, said his teams had been working 24 hours a day since Friday and at 17:00 GMT the authority had 60 gritters attending to roads.

"Often the schools are difficult to access because they are off the priority network, but we do have staff deployed to do footpath clearing," he said.

"Most of our staff are also deployed at the vaccination centres, we are desperately trying to keep them open as well.

"I think the biggest problem is the high winds and the drifting snow.

"It's very light in nature this snow so it's blowing about a lot, but we have got all of our gritters out across the network."

Northumberland Country Zoo's snow leopards felt at home in the wintry scenes

Pamela Holmes from Newcastle City Council said teams had been treating the roads continuously with ploughs and salt since the early hours of Wednesday.

"There is less traffic on the road at the minute and we do need the traffic to break down the grit and break down the ice," she said.

"Obviously with less traffic - which is good because people are staying at home, only doing essential journeys which we encourage - it takes longer for the grit to work.

"While it is passable there are areas where people need to take care."

A snow blower helped clear routes in Tynedale, Northumberland

Northumberland County Council's Paul Jones called conditions "challenging".

"We have been working right through the night. There was a very heavy and prolonged snowfall of about five or six inches at about four in the morning, to the extent where we had to park up some of the gritters because the conditions were so bad.

"We have continued to work right through the early hours and we have got all of our A-roads currently passable and we are really just focusing on that A-road network to make sure it stays open."

Hundreds of people gathered in Newcastle as people took the opportunity to sledge

The weather did not stop some from having fun while braving the cold

In Wooler, Northumberland, farmer Mark Mather told BBC Radio Newcastle he had been out helping the council clear the roads with his plough and tractor.

"There were very difficult conditions first thing this morning, blizzard-like conditions, very hard to drive in which has slowed the process down.

"The lads [from the council] have worked really hard, but there were really bad conditions earlier this morning.

"There's not a lot of snow, which is more frustrating. It's just that fine slippery snow, very much reminding us of the Beast from the East in terms of how slippery it is."

• Heavy snow causes disruption in parts of UK

Newcastle Airport said because there were so few flights due to the coronavirus lockdown there had been "minimal impact".

However, the runway continued to be cleared because it remained open for medical and military flights, as well as some domestic routes.

For the animals at Northumberland Country Zoo, the snow meant a day of fun