MOST of the local schools that were closed today because of the snow and ice are set to reopen tomorrow.

Many have issued messages to parents and carers along the lines of this information from St Clere's Secondary in Stanford-le-Hope: "Premises staff have spent the day making sure the school site is ready for opening.

"As there has been no further snow warnings, we plan to open as usual tomorrow (Tuesday, 13 December).  

"Please ensure children are wearing warm coats in these temperatures and those who walk may wish to journey to school in alternative footwear and change into school shoes once inside the building. 

"Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing our pupils back in school tomorrow." 

Meanwhile, despite lots of criticism on social media, Thurrock Council says its gritting team did as good a job as possible yesterday and crewes were deployed three times to cover the borough's principle routes.

A statement to Thurrock Nub News says: "Gritters went out three times yesterday (Sunday, 11 December) with the first run taking place at 12 noon and subsequent runs at 9pm and 1am. The crews had also gritted the borough's roads twice on Saturday (10 December) at 1pm and 10pm.

"Full details of primary and secondary gritting routes can be found on our website at: https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/gritting-and-snow-clearing/gritting-routes.

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"Crews covered primary routes five times over the weekend.

"There is no set schedule for gritting. Gritters are deployed based on predictions of road surface temperature, which is often colder than air temperature, as roads can lock in the temperature and frost and ice can form even if air temperatures are above freezing.

"On average each time they go out our gritters cover 266 miles of the borough's road and use around 20 tonnes of rock salt grit to help keep the borough's roads as free of ice and frost as possible. Last winter our gritters put 862 tonnes of salt on Thurrock main roads.

"As a result of the snow and ice household wase collections have been suspended. Plans for collections will be updated as more is known about weather conditions. Linford HWRC is also currently closed because of icy conditions."