THE heaviest snow to hit the East Cornwall area for many years has caused major disruption this week.

Many people woke up to a picturesque scene on Tuesday morning as heavy snow hit the area, but while children were having fun playing in the snow, others were experiencing mayhem.

A number of schools in the East Cornwall area were closed on Tuesday and yesterday (Wednesday), including primary schools in Calstock, Delaware, Gunnislake, Harrowbarrow, Callington and Stoke Climsland.

Callington Community College was open on Tuesday morning but was closed at 2pm and remained closed on Wednesday. Duchy College at Stoke Climsland was also closed.

With the prolonged freezing weather conditions, the salt usage in Cornwall has been higher than expected and Cornwall Council said in order to preserve the stocks for the precautionary network, they were unable to react to public requests for gritting and were only responding to requests from the emergency services.

Simon Deacon, highways operations manager for Cornwall Council, said: 'Public safety is of paramount concern and we do everything we can to provide as safe a passage as possible for people who use our roads.

'However, it is vital that people do not assume that a road has been salted and we would urge drivers to ensure that they drive according to the road conditions.'

Because of road conditions, many people were unable to get to work, including police officers.

Inspector Turner, who is usually based in Liskeard, reported to Callington police station on Wednesday.

He said: 'As a matter of force contingency, police officers will report to the closest police station to where they live.

'There was even a number of officers who were off duty who have turned up to help.'

Inspector Turner said that the police had obtained a number of 4x4 police vehicles, which are used to go to emergencies only.

The police have warned residents only to travel if their journey is necessary.

The majority of waste collections in Cornwall were cancelled, with rubbish only being collected in accessible areas where it was safe to do so, and all recycling collections were cancelled.

Cllr Norma Greenslade of Calstock Parish Council did not leave her house for two days — but appreciated the beauty of the snow.

She said: 'We've had about an inch and a half of snow, the hills coming into Calstock have been pretty bad. It looks like a lovely Christmas card.'

In Stoke Climsland the snow did not seem to stop people visiting the post office.

Sue Watts, Stoke Climsland Post Office mistress, said: 'We have been very, very busy this morning. It's very snowy and we have had no gritters through at all in Stoke Climsland although people have been out hand-gritting the bad areas.'

She said that a Ginsters lorry had got stuck at the bottom of Stoke Climsland Hill bringing a delivery to the Post Office shop.

'We're running out of products but we've still got some bread, eggs and milk. We have had no post delivery or collection for two days. It's chaos.'