Heavy snow closes schools and disrupts travel

Snow: Traffic tailed back to the Willow Brook Centre on Bradley Stoke Way.

Heavy falls of snow have led to the closure of all schools in Bradley Stoke today (Friday 18th) and disrupted travel throughout the area.

The snow arrived, as predicted, in the early hours and continued throughout the morning rush hour. The Met Office reported that 7cm of snow had been recorded at Filton Airfield by 9am.

News about which schools were closed was difficult to come by as the South Gloucestershire Council website failed under the heavy load of requests but by 8am it was clear that none of the seven schools in Bradley Stoke would be opening.

First Group initially said its buses were running but announced at around 7:30am that it was suspending all Bristol services. Wessex Connect similarly cancelled all its services due to “dangerous conditions”.

Accidents on the motorways led to the M4 being closed for a time between junctions 19 and 18 (eastbound) and the M5 being restricted to the hard shoulder only between junctions 15 and 14 (northbound).

For the latest news, check our Snow Watch page and follow the Bradley Stoke Journal on Twitter (@TheBSJournal).

Despite the ongoing snowfall, children were out building snowmen as soon as it was light. Our photographer spotted an early one made by Darcy, Felicity and Penelope in Wheatfield Drive just after 9am (below).

Darcy, Felicity, Penelope and dad Kevin with their snowman in Wheatfield Drive.

As the snow eases off, many children and families are heading to the slopes for a spot of tobogganing.

There are more photos of this morning’s snow in Bradley Stoke on PicasaWeb.

Send us your Bradley Stoke photos by Twitter, Facebook message or email. The best will appear in our PicasaWeb gallery and on our Facebook page.

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18 comments

  2. Thank you firstbus for taking us early starters into work from Bradley Stoke and Patchway, then suspending the service.

    Are we going to get a refund on tickets, or an extension on our monthly or weekly farecard, or a free ride to compensate for the fact that we had to pay for a one way ticket from Temple Meads to Parkway and then had a long walk to get back home.

    You should have cancelled right from the start!!! Not gave it a try and then cancel.

  3. Hmmm, the picture says it all. Cars could move in and around Bradley Stoke this morning albeit a little more slowly than normal, but teachers couldn’t get to Bradley Stoke schools? Really?

  4. @K

    If people never tried in the first place, no one would ever achieve anything. Give First Bus their credit for trying to push through the adverse weather.

    No doubt if they’d just cancelled, you would be on here complaining they didn’t try hard enough. Is it really so bad to have to take the train for once?

    The fact is this country isn’t, and never will be, equipped to deal with snow. The amount of snow we get just doesn’t justify the expenditure on specialist vehicles to keep the road network fully open.

    We all just need to accept that days like this happen and get on with our lives. No amount of shouting or complaining on an internet forum is going to get you anywhere.

  5. I’m not quite sure why First cancelled services anyway. I was expecting the roads to be a nightmare on the way into work this morning, but actually it was quicker than usual! Maybe it’s the time it takes to scrape the snow off the buses? 😉

  6. A big thank you to: Phlip Coombes, David Rollo, Donna Thomas, Emma Curnock, Tracey Murray, Victoria Pollard, Louise Horton, Martin Pavlik, Brendan Turner and Shazia Tazeen for sending in some great photos.

    View them on Facebook and PicasaWeb.

    Keep sending them. We’ll put more up tonight. Anyone got sledging pics?

  7. Were the roads in and around Bristol really treacherous and dangerous that few inches of snow completely shutdown the bus system? Someone is not doing their job right. A lots of people stayed away from roads today so traffic would be much less than normal.

  8. Thank you for placing your lovely picture of my daughters on your page. They were so excited to see the snow this morning, they started building the snowman before 8.30 am!

  9. They are damned if they do, damned if they dont. The bus company had to give it go, where would we be, if we as a society gave up before something even started. We would still be living in caves !

  10. Today my wife and I took a trip to Plymouth, (arranged two weeks ago) to see my son.

    The only roads not fit for purpose today where Brook Way, Bradley Stoke Way, A38 to M5. From that point on, there were no issues, and from Collumpton no snow.

    It is ironic that all week SGC has been gritting roads but this morning and no benefit of this effort could be seen.

    As regards the bus service it is about time that SGC and BSC ban all cars from primary routes at peak times when the weather is this bad and concentrate on keeping these routes open for public transport.

  11. Skls out, Yes cars could move around Bradley stoke, But not all Teachers live in Bradley Stoke. So is it worth opening a school with only half the teachers bening able to get in, People would then moan that there children or not being taught properly.. no win really!!!!!

  16. You can now post your own photos directly onto the BSJ Facebook page. Please give your photos a meaningful description that explains their connection to Bradley Stoke. To avoid abuse, all postings will be moderated before they appear in the ‘Recent Posts by Others’ panel. The best will be included in the page’s timeline.

  17. Thanks to Shaun King, Sarah Jones, Quanita Calver and Katy Jennifer Smith for adding Bradley Stoke snow photos to our Facebook page.

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