Amber weather warning until Friday morning
The Met Office have issued an amber weather warning of snow covering the Bradford district until 10am on Friday 2 March.
Long delays and cancellations on bus, rail and air travel could occur. Roads may become blocked by deep snow, with many stranded vehicles and passengers. Some rural communities might be cut off for several days. Long interruptions to power supplies and other services such as telephone and mobile phone networks, could occur.
Please keep an eye on the weather forecast and take extra care.
 Due to worsening weather conditions overnight and this morning it wasn't safe to send our bin crews and vehicles out. It would have been dangerous to attempt any bin collections.
Conditions have improved slightly this afternoon, so some of our bin collection staff are emptying bins in the Bradford Road area of Keighley and the main
roads around Keighley town centre. Unfortunately, no other areas will be attempted today.
Our other bin collection staff will continue to help with gritting duties.
With the cold weather set to continue, we will have to take each day as it comes. But as things stand it looks unlikely that we will be able to catch up with this week's missed bin collections until at least Monday.
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Please don't report missed bins this week
If we haven't emptied your bin as scheduled this week, there is no need to report it to us. All roads that we cannot reach are reported automatically, and our waste team managers know where we have and haven't managed to reach.
Please bear with us at this difficult time. Our contact centre are getting a lot of enquirers at the moment, as you can imagine. It would help them get to other important questions quicker if you don't report missed bins.
We will collect extra waste when we come back
Although we wouldn't normally take extra bags of rubbish, if we haven't been able to empty your bin this week we will take bagged up extra waste when we come back.
Please read about bin collections in bad weather and also follow us on Twitter where we will keep you informed about any further developments.
The photo above shows the road from Silsden to East Morton this morning.
Snow clearing and gritting update
 Teams worked through Wednesday night in blizzard conditions keeping main roads open. Tractor ploughs and other extra resources have been brought in to clear snow that has drifted onto the roads.
Our crews went out for a full grit at 5am this morning in an attempt to treat over 700 miles of the network. However, the continuous snow showers with the strong winds made this impossible. In situations like this we have to change our course of action and concentrate resources onto the main road network across the district. All the main roads are passable.
Prioritising hospitals and main roads
Our gritting teams communicate constantly and under these severe conditions the roads to the three hospitals that include St. Luke’s, BRI and Airedale are an absolute priority. All the main roads that connect the city to outlying towns and villages are also then prioritised.
Gritting plans for Thursday night and Friday morning
Our crews will do a full grit from 6pm today. Four night patrols will then grit through the night from 9pm. We will do another full grit at 5am on Friday, including footpaths in the city and town centres.
Thank you to a resident in Cottingley who sent us the picture above of one of our snow ploughs.
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Look out for friends, family and neighbours
If you are concerned about vulnerable neighbours or friends during the severe weather, please contact our Adult Services Access Point as soon as possible on 01274 435400.
Please do what you can to help make sure that you and your friends and neighbours stay warm and well.
Help for rough sleepers
Working with our partners we have already opened our cold weather provision for rough sleepers. Additional beds are being made available and outreach workers are out making sure no-one has to sleep on the streets in the cold weather.
Everyone who stays for a cold weather bed is provided with support around resolving their housing situation on a longer term basis.
If you are worried about someone sleeping on the streets, please call 01274 309165.
Other service disruptions
Committee meetings postponed
Today’s meetings of the Health and Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Keighley Area Committee will not be taking place due to the continuing adverse weather conditions.
Library closures
The following libraries are now closed for the rest of today: Denholme, Ilkley, Keighley, Laisterdyke, Wyke, Wrose, Menston and Clayton.
Manningham library will close early at 5pm.
Keep an eye on our website for a list of of libraries that are closed.
Museums and Galleries closures
All of our museums and galleries (Cartwright Hall, Cliffe Castle, Bradford Industrial Museum and Bolling Hall) are closed today.
Sports centres and pools
The following sports centres and pools are closed today:
- Bowling Pool
- Queensbury Pool
- Tong Sports Centre and Pool
Sports pitches closed this weekend
All Bradford Council sports pitches will be closed this weekend due to the weather. This is the first such closure the council has had to make this season and we are hopeful that fixtures will be back to normal for the following weekend.
Secondary school admission notifications
If you have applied for a secondary school place for your child, please see our update about secondary school admission notifications.
School closures
Parents and carers can keep up to date with news
about school closures because of the weather through our website.
The decision on whether to stay open is made by each
individual school. They are best placed to understand the impact of the
forecasted weather on their communities. Schools will always try to stay open
but ensuring the safety of pupils, staff and the children's families is of
paramount importance.
Schools have to make decisions based on weather forecasts
and to give parents and carers as much time as possible to make alternative
childcare arrangements.
Latest disruptions information on our website
If any more Council services become affected by the severe weather, we will update the service disruptions page of our website and will tweet about any changes. Bradford Theatres are still planning to go ahead with this evening's performance of War Horse at the Alhambra Theatre. Please allow extra time to get there if you are going. Follow Bradford Theatres on Twitter for any updates.
 The advice is to avoid unnecessary journeys but if you do have to drive, take care and be prepared.
If you are driving over the next few days, please allow plenty of time, leave plenty of space between you and vehicle in front, and drive slowly and carefully. This applies even on gritted roads, which can still be hazardous.
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In extreme conditions, ask yourself
- is your journey necessary.
- have you checked weather forecasts and road conditions and carefully considered the advice given.
- have you got plenty of fuel.
- does anyone know your destination and expected time of arrival.
- have you got warm clothing, hot drinks, food, Wellingtons, a torch and shovel with you.
- If you park your car on a gritting route, please remember, a gritter is about twice the width of a car, so try and park so that our guys can get through to grit the roads.
Met Office weather warnings for Yorkshire and the Humber
Winter and gritting advice and information
Bradford Council service disruptions
Preparing for emergencies: what you can do
Report issues on the roads
NHS advice for keeping well and warm in cold weather
West Yorkshire Metro travel information
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