THE heaviest snow to fall for years descended on the West Devon area this week — throwing normal life into chaos.

The snow, which started early on Tuesday morning, quickly affected schools — Tavistock College closed and Tavistock Primary School closed after lunch.

But by yesterday (Wednesday), further heavy snow — up to five, even six inches in places — meant main roads were treacherous and side roads impossible to use. The route between Mary Tavy and Okehampton was said to be impassable.

Princetown has been badly affected — several cars have been abandoned at Devil's Elbow and Two Bridges, and shops in the village have been selling out of milk and bread.

The only school in the Tavistock area which opened was Whitchurch Primary.

Heateacher Angela O'Shea Warman said: 'Most of the staff live close by. The heating works and the snow today isn't the really dangerous stuff, so there was really no reason to close.

'We told parents to phone at 8am and the advice was, anybody driving shouldn't come to school, but to anyone who could walk, we are open.

'We have about half the children in and we are having a great day — the teachers are all covering for each other and there's a great atmosphere.'

The state of the roads meant that scheduled refuse collections have, in many cases, been postponed.

A spokesperson for West Devon Borough Council said: 'We had to cancel the collections today.

'We are asking people to leave their bins outside and we will try and catch up as soon as possible, but due to health and safety issues, we can't get the lorries out at the moment.'

The spokesperson said the council offices in Tavistock and Okehampton were operating as normal.

'People have walked to work from miles around — one very committed member of staff walked 6.4 miles from Milton Abbot, which took him an hour and a half, and he has to walk home again yet.

'We are all here to help anybody that needs it and are working with our partners to make sure we can assist in any way possible.

'In light of the fact there was a great deal of warning yesterday we made sure there were plans in place to keep our services covered, so the offices in both towns, and the offices at The Quay in Tavistock, are open.

'Meadowlands and Parklands have closed, mainly due to staffing issues.'

Many shops in Tavistock were unable to open for business — the atmosphere in the town was quite unlike a usual busy week day.

Early on, the empty streets resembled the deserted aftermath of a disaster, while later, snowmen began to appear in the most unexpected of places as children made the most of their unexpected time off school.

Sgt Dave Anning of Tavistock Police said in general, people appeared to be showing sense regarding their attempts to take their cars onto the snow-clogged streets.

'To be honest, it's just downright dangerous to try and drive a car in these conditions, there's no two ways about it, and most people are being sensible,' said Sgt Anning.

'As far as the police station is concerned, we've only got a limited amount of four-wheel drive vehicles, so we can't send too many people out.

'Police officers are working from the stations nearest to them and that seems to be working reasonably well.

'If we need to we can call on the Dartmoor Rescue Group, who have a 4x4, for extra help.'

Sgt Anning re-iterated the warning that if people did have to go out in their cars, to make sure they had plenty of petrol, warm clothes, a fully-charged mobile phone, a shovel and a hot drink with them.

He added: 'It's astounding how many people will set out without these things, but they are really, really important.'

The cold weather is forecast to continue until at least Monday next week.