09/03/2023 - Permalink

Cold weather and snow: UPDATE Thursday 9 March 1.15pm

Related topics: Corporate

A yellow weather warning for snow is currently in place for Shropshire, with an amber weather warning for the very north of the county. These warnings remain in place until Friday afternoon (10 March 2023). A significant amount of snow is forecast to continue to fall throughout today.  

A number of schools, leisure centres, libraries and roads have already been closed due to the snowfall yesterday and overnight. Please see below for more detail.  

School closures  

You can find out more about which schools are closed here: https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/school-closures/   

Library closures  

  • Church Stretton 
  • Much Wenlock 
  • Gobowen 
  • Library delivery van and the mobile libraries 
  • Oswestry Library is currently open but will close at 1pm
  • Wem is currently open, but will close at 3pm 

Leisure centre closures 

  • Much Wenlock Leisure Centre – closed today and tomorrow morning.  Will reassess in the morning with a view to opening at 4pm tomorrow 
  • SpArC, Bishop’s Castle Leisure Centre – closed at 8pm yesterday and is closed all day today 
  • Church Stretton Leisure Centre – the centre will close at 3pm when school swimming sessions end 
  • The Quarry Swimming and Fitness Centre in Shrewsbury closed at midday
  • Oswestry Leisure Centre – is closing at 2pm today,

Warm Welcome venues  

It is possible that some Warm Welcome venues across the county will be closed today, for example if staff have difficulty travelling. If you had been planning to visit one of the venues, we recommend that you phone in advance of your journey to check whether they are open or are closing early. Contact details can be found here: Warm Welcome locations | Shropshire Council 

Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury   

Performances are currently going ahead as scheduled, but please allow extra time for travel.  

Waste and recycling collections  

There are limited waste and recycling collections this morning and we will be monitoring the situation throughout the day.   

Please make sure that you:  

  • 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’s 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 bin / boxes and blue sacks out (as long as they don’t present a trip hazard). We’ll collect them as soon as it’s safe to do so.

Roads and travel 

Our highways teams have been working round the clock yesterday and today maintaining priority and secondary routes throughout the county. Kier, our term maintenance contractor has been out and about gritting the county’s roads five times in the last 48 hours, with over 600 tons of salt used across the network.   

The B4370 road, which links the A49 at Marshbrook to the A459 at Hordley, is currently closed.  

We are ready 

Prior to winter to ensure that we are ready for the challenges the following steps were taken; 

  • 1,800 grit bins – all mapped and restocked prior to winter 
  • 80 trained gritter drivers with just 70 on rota 
  • 25 operational gritters (10T vehicles) 
  • 2 (3.5T vehicles) 
  • More than 50 schools are signed up for our free support initiative (providing schools with salt, push along spreader, enabling them to treat approaches to the school).

Bus services  

A number of Shropshire bus services have been affected by today’s bad weather. Please see details here: Bus services affected by today’s bad weather – Shropshire Council Newsroom  

Shropshire Local Mobile and Shropshire Local  

The Shropshire Local Mobile visit to Broseley Library today 10am-2pm has been cancelled.  

Due to weather conditions and staffing challenges Shropshire Local Shrewsbury will be closing for the rest of today. Shrewsbury and Ludlow may be closed tomorrow but we’ll advise when we know more.  

Important committee meeting  

Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, scheduled for today at 2pm at Shirehall, Shrewsbury, has been postponed – a new date yet to be arranged.  

Stay safe and well   

The council’s ‘5 ways to winter wellness’ website offers a range of advice and information, from helping vulnerable people to remain safe and well, to notifications of school closures and travel updates. 

The website 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, including make sure you get your flu jab. Pharmacies offer flu vaccinations in Shropshire. 
  • Local information during bad weather – updates and information on traffic, winter road maintenance, road and school closures, what to do if your waste is not collected and services effected by adverse weather 
  • 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. 
  • Shropshire Newsroom– news and updates from Shropshire Council. 
  • Rough sleepers – advice on how to let us know if you see someone rough sleeping.

Keep up to date 

For more information on services affected by the weather please visit the council’s website.