Treacherous weather conditions brought areas of Teignbridge to a halt this week.

Traffic was brought to a standstill on some roads and icy surfaces made driving difficult.

A Renault Clio slid in the ice and hit a junction box on Old Exeter Road, Newton Abbot, on Monday evening.

Bad weather also played a part in a collision involving a Ford Focus, Renault Clio and Peugeot 106 in Abbotsbury Road, Newton Abbot, on Tuesday morning.

County council gritters have been working around the clock salting the roads and managed to cover around 20 per cent of the road network across the county.

Chris Cranston, county council highway operations control centre manager, said: 'We are doing the best we can in some of the most difficult conditions we have experienced in years. We would urge people to drive with care.'

Refuse collections were also scaled down on Tuesday, due to the snowfall and ice.

Collections in towns started later than usual and, due to conditions, they were not able to collect waste from areas on the moors, such as Haytor.

A scouting vehicle was sent to other rural areas to assess whether collections were possible.

There was also disruption on the railways. On Monday some train services were revised so they no longer stopped at Newton Abbot.

Numerous schools in the district also closed. Stover School sent pupils home early on Monday and Tuesday and, due to the adverse weather conditions, it took the decision to close on Wednesday.

The Year 11 parents' evening planned for Wednesday was postponed until February 11.

Widecombe Primary School also closed its doors to pupils on Tuesday and Wednesday, while primary schools in Christow, Ipplepen, Doddiscombsleigh, Dunsford and Bovey Tracey closed on Tuesday.

'Part way through the morning it was blizzard conditions and we had a few parents call to express their concern, so we decided to close the school,' said Julie Dyer, headteacher at Bovey Tracey Primary School.

'We looked at the forecast for the rest of the day and thought it was a health and safety issue keeping the school open. Sending the 300 children home is not a decision we took lightly. All had left the school by 1.45pm.

'We managed to get cover for four members of staff who didn't make it, which is quite ironic as we ended up closing.'