SNOW has again fallen in parts of Devon overnight with the north and east of the county hardest hit. Devon County Council's highways teams have been working continuously overnight with gritters out from 6pm covering the county's main salting network.

SNOW has again fallen in parts of Devon overnight with the north and east of the county hardest hit.

Devon County Council's highways teams have been working continuously overnight with gritters out from 6pm covering the county's main salting network. Efforts were escalated during the night to include secondary routes as snow fell and around 1,300 tonnes of salt was used on around 2,000 miles of the county's roads overnight.

Between 10cm-15cm of snow fell in parts of the county, around double the levels that had been forecast, and temperatures plummeted below freezing overnight, the lowest being Yarcombe which reached -2.3C.

The County Council has also been clearing a number of felled trees which had been blocking roads including the A377 Umberleigh, A396 Blackcat and the A399 at Brayford Quarry, but they are all now clear. The majority of roads across the county remain passable with care, and secondary routes and footways were being treated this morning.

Councillor Margaret Rogers, Devon County Council Executive Member for Environment, said: "We are still in winter so people still need to take into account the winter driving advice, and pay particular attention to conditions. Our gritting teams have been working flat out overnight. They were well prepared and coped with conditions that were much worse than expected to keep the county moving once again. Roads are improving throughout this morning but we would continue to advise people to be extremely careful however they may be travelling."

Chris Cranston, Devon County Council's Highway Operations Control Centre Manager, said: "We had planned a preventative regime on the basis of the forecast but we were able to escalate that overnight. While we're not expecting further significant snow it will be another cold night this evening, and with the amount of snow we've had it could potentially be icy tonight. However it should improve to become milder and wet and windy by the weekend."

Devon County Council has around 11,000 tonnes of salt in its stocks for the remainder of the winter.

For information on winter driving conditions see:

http://www.devon.gov.uk/travelling_on_devons_roads.pdf