A bus struggles
through as it leaves Tower Parade, Whitstable for the town
centre on Thursday morning. Picture: Chris Davey.

by Adam Williams

Overnight snow flurries brought
much of the district to a standstill on Thursday morning.

An estimated 10cm fell overnight
across Canterbury, Whitstable, Herne Bay and Faversham causing many
schools to close and forced some commuters to abandon their
journeys into work.

An elderly woman in Waltham,
between Canterbury and Ashford, died after she fell and bumped her
head while trying to clear snow from her driveway.

Police confirmed the 93-year-old,
from Pennypot Lane, went back inside her house after falling, but
died shortly after. Her death is not being treated as
suspicious.

Emergency services

South East Coast
Ambulance Service NHS Trust (SECAmb) is focusing its efforts on
getting to those patients who need help the most.

Despite the number of calls not
significantly increasing, the Trust's efforts to get to patients
are being significantly hampered by the snowy and icy
conditions.

SECAmb is asking
people to bear with them as it may take a little longer than
normal to reach people in areas where snow is particularly heavy or
roads are icy.

Voluntary organisations
such as the Red Cross and St John Ambulance, as well as other 4x4
vehicle suppliers, have assisted the SECAmb in
getting staff to and from work as well as responding to
patients.

Director of operations,
Sue Harris said: “Due to the very severe conditions that we are
experiencing across the region, we are now focusing our efforts on
getting to those patients who need us the most.

“Therefore, it will take
us longer to get those patients who have less serious
conditions.”

Outpatient appointments at the QEQM
Hospital, Margate, The William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and the
Kent & Canterbury Hospital were cancelled on Thursday
afternoon.

Patients will be
contacted by appointment booking staff with a new date as soon as
possible.

Anyone with concerns can
contact the outpatient appointments line on 01227 868686.

Traffic and travel

On the travel front, roads and
rails were severely disrupted, with many main roads close to
impassable and police advising people not to travel unless
absolutely necessary.

Southeastern was planning to run a
significantly reduced timetable on Thursday. High Speed services
between London St Pancras and the county were expected to run, but
with delays.

Latest service information is available here.

Many of the area's rural stations
were reporting almost no services at all. Sky News reporter Paul
Harrison was live at a deserted Aylesham railway station
during the morning, where he had only seen one train pass through
on its way to Canterbury in the space of 90 minutes.

Sky News reporter Paul Harrison at a snow swept Aylesham railway station on Thursday morning.

A jack-knifed lorry caused
disruption to traffic on the coastbound A2 at Bridge on Thursday
lunchtime.

Emergency services attended the
scene just before 10.30am to divert traffic and recover the vehicle
between the A2050 and A260 Old Dover Road.

The lorry was recovered and the
road reopened at 1.30pm.

A gas leak in South Tankerton
closed the Old Thanet Way between Reeves Way and Clover Rise.
Police were called out at 8am to help close the road and divert
traffic before gas engineers arrived at the scene.

The road remains closed while
repairs take place, but the disruption is not expected to affect
supplies to nearby homes.

Public services and events

Canterbury City Council and Swale
Borough Council suspended rubbish collections on Thursday due to
the adverse weather.

Officers will review the situation on Friday morning but advised people to leave their bins out as normal for refuse lorries to get to them as soon as possible. Latest information is available on the Canterbury City Council and Swale Borough Council websites.

Park and ride services in
Canterbury were suspended at lunchtime from all three sites into
the city. Services are still available to help passengers retrieve
their vehicles from car parks.

At lunchtime, officials were forced
to cancel Thursday night's Christmas light switch-on in
Whitstable town centre planned to begin at 5pm.

To keep up to date with all the latest traffic and travel information, tune into kmfm for Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay on 106FM or click here to listen live.

Tell us how the snow has affected you? Email in your stories and pictures tokentishgazette@thekmgroup.co.uk