Cold weather alert: update on disruptions to council services and cold weather advice

Update as of Friday 2 March 2018 11.30am

Snow and cold weather is affecting schools, roads and some council services.

School closures

For information about any school closures due to bad weather, please click here. Alternatively look out for your school email notifications or, listen to your local radio station. Headteachers are being asked to determine whether their school should open, based on local conditions and transport arrangements.

Council services closures 

The following council services will be closed due to the current bad weather:-

Alveley

Severn Valley Country Park will be closed today (Friday 2 March).

Bishops Castle

• SpArC Bishop’s Castle – closed today (Friday 2 March) – will reopen on Sunday 4 March
• Bishop’s Castle Mobile library will not be in operation today (Friday 2 March).

Baschurch

• Greenacres Farm closed today (Friday 2 March)

Bridgnorth

• Registrars Office at Bridgnorth Library will be closed today (Friday 2 March).  This office is an appointment only office, no customers have been inconvenienced. Wedding ceremonies are unaffected.
• Bridgnorth Mobile library will not be in operation today (Friday 2 March).
• Bridgnorth Library will be closing at 3pm today (Friday 2 March).
• Bridgnorth customer service point closing at 1pm today (Friday 2 March).

Cleobury Mortimer

• Cleobury Mortimer Leisure Centre – will will be closed today (Friday 2 March) but will reopen tomorrow morning (Saturday 3 March).

Church Stretton

• Church Stretton Library will be closed today (Friday 2 March).   

Ludlow

• Helena Lane Day Services closed today (Friday 2 March)
• Ludlow Library will be closing at 12pm today (Friday 2 March).
• Ludlow customer service point closed all day (Friday 2 March)

Market Drayton

• Wayfarers Day Services closed today (Friday 2 March).
• Customer service point closed from 1pm today (Friday 2 March)

Oswestry

• Avalon Day Services closed today (Friday 2 March)
• Registrars Office at Oswestry Library – will be closed today (Friday 2 March). Wedding ceremonies are unaffected
• Oswestry Library and customer service point will be closed from 1pm today (Friday 2 March).

Shifnal

• Idsall Sports Centre will be closed today (Friday 2 March), following on from the announcement that Idsall School will be closed.

Shrewsbury

• Aquamira Day Services closed today (Friday 2 March)
• Abbots Wood Day Services closed today (Friday 2 March)
• Albert Road Day Services closed today (Friday 2 March)
• Registrars walk-in birth service at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is closed today (Friday 2 March). The office will be closed on Monday 5 March due to staff sickness. As death registrations are appointments only, no customers have been inconvenienced. 
• Customer service point at 1A Castle Gates closing at 1pm today (Friday 2 March).

Whitchurch

• Whitchurch Swimming Centre is open.
• Customer service point closed from 1pm today (Friday 2 March)

Children’s centres sessions and Early Help consultations 

All Children’s centres activities and Early Help consultations will also be cancelled today due to the severe weather conditions. Some of these include: 

• Funky Friday’s Mereside Primary School, Shrewsbury
• Buttercup Lodge, Sundorne Infants School, Shrewsbury
• Richmond House, Rutland, Shrewsbury
• Shifnal Early Help consultation at St Andrews children’s centre, St Andrews Primary School, Shifnal
• Albrighton Early Help consultation at Albrighton children’s centre, Albrighton Primary School, Albrighton 

Snow scene

Supporting vulnerable people

Despite the current weather conditions our adult social care services are working with partners to ensure those of our most vulnerable residents continue to get the support they need. This includes the deployment of 4×4 services to reach those homes which are difficult to get to.

School transport 

Shropshire Council’s passenger transport team is liaising with operators, who will consider the various forecasts and local weather conditions before making a decision.  Parents should therefore be prepared that some school routes may not operate because of local weather conditions. 

For information about any road closures or traffic disruption due to bad weather, visit the Highways England website or click here 

All our highways and transport staff are continually working hard to ensure our roads are clear to keep Shropshire moving.

To find out if our gritting lorries have been out, go to Twitter and follow #wmgrit. Please be patient with us if your road hasn’t been gritted. We will get to it eventually. 

Travel Advice – do please travel only if you need to. Here’s some useful advice.

• Do you need to commute to work? Speak to your boss about working from home instead of driving in snowy conditions
• It might not be snowing when you leave for work, but have you planned ahead? Allow extra time for driving in adverse weather.
• If you do need to drive in snowy weather make sure your fuel, screen wash and anti-freeze levels are topped up and take warm clothes with you.
• Keep your eyes on the local weather forecasts throughout the day so you can plan your journey ahead.

More travel advice can be found here or go online to https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/barometer/advice/travel-advice.

Waste  and recycling collections

If we’re unable to collect your waste or recycling due to severe bad weather:

• Leave your refuse bin out. If we can’t get to you on your scheduled collection day we’ll come back and collect it as soon as it is safe to do so.
• Take your garden waste bin back in, and put it out on your next scheduled garden waste collection day.
• Leave your recycling boxes and blue sacks out (as long as they don’t present a trip hazard). We’ll collect them as soon as it is safe to do so. 

Bus services

To find out the latest updates regarding bus services click here or go online to www.travelinemidlands.co.uk/.

Theatre Severn

Friday night’s performance by Heatwave and Odyssey has been cancelled. All other performances are expected to run as normal.

Advice on how to stay safe and well

Our Stay Safe and Well pages signposts people to a wide range of both local and national winter-related information which includes:

• Stay well this winter, NHS advice – to help those people who are most at risk of illness during winter to take steps to stay well.
• Keep well and warm– Government advice on staying well in cold weather, covering issues such as financial help, healthy lifestyle and heating.
• Get Ready for Winter– Met Office advice and information of the dangers posed by winter weather and provide tips and advice on how to minimise its impact.
• Winter advice for older people– advice and information from Age UK.

Clive Wright, Shropshire Council’s chief executive, said:

“Our staff are doing a fantastic job to help keep people moving and care for our most vulnerable residents.

“Most of our buildings will be open and we will have staff in place to continue to provide essential services to Shropshire residents.

“To keep updated on current changes to services follow us on Twitter @shropcouncil and Facebook at Shropshire Council.  You can also sign up to our newsroom updates here.”

Further information  

Services and buildings remaining open

Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery now open today  (Friday 2 March)

• Cantern Brook, Bridgnorth open
• Ludlow Youth Centre is open
• Market Drayton Swimming Centre is open
• Castle View Offices, Oswestry open
• The Centre, Oswestry, open
• Oswestry Leisure Centre, Oswestry,  open
• Shrewsbury
  • Roman Road Sports Centre closed today (Friday 2 March)
  • Shirehall open
  • Richmond House open
  • Mount McKinley open
  • The Lantern open
  • Ptarmigan open
  • 1a Castle Gates open
  • The Gateway open
  • Quarry Swimming pool open
  • Shrewsbury Sports Village open
• Ludlow Leisure centre  – open but no swimming pool available – will close at 2pm
• Church Stretton Leisure Centre – open now, but no children’s swimming lessons between 3.30pm and 5pm (public swim instead) – centre will close at 7pm.