Slip sliding away

Photo: Tim Bradley

Brian Devenport Deputy Church Warden at The Church of St. Anne, Lydgate spreads salt on the church path.

Winter’s first Arctic snap had commuters and shoppers slipping and sliding around the borough.

Snow, bitter winds and plunging temperatures caught many unaware particularly around Saddleworth.

Chronicle reader Matt Allen who lives on the A62 Oldham-Huddersfield Road near Scouthead captured the drama as this double-decker bus struggled to climb the gradient towards the former Star Inn.

He said: "The bus had its back-end sliding sideways, but somehow it managed to continue.

"It got much worse for traffic going down hill towards Delph and a lorry kept jack-knifing and ended up stopping outside our house.

"At this point we were out with the snow shovel clearing the way for a car which was stuck.

"A bus came down the hill but when the driver braked the bus shifted to the opposite lane. We blocked the traffic coming up and cleared as much as the snow as we could," he added.

Meanwhile, police, fire and ambulance crews were called to Grains Road, Shaw, after a car slid off the road in icy conditions at around 9am on Saturday.

It mounted the kerb on a sharp bend on the hill and hit the post of a crash barrier, badly damaging the front passenger side wheel.

The couple who were in the car suffered minor injuries.

Oldham council's armada of gritters worked tireless over the weekend treating primary roads and secondary routes.

Temperatures dropped below freezing overnight with travellers waking up today to a heavy frost and sleet on high ground.

Gritters blitzed the roads yesterday and before sunrise today with patrols in between.

Craig Dale, head of the council's highways 0perations, speaking of the Friday night problems, said: "Every road was pre-treated, but difficulties come when heavy rain turns to snow over such a short period."