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Heavy snowfall causes transport chaos with trains delayed, cars abandoned and flights cancelled across Britain

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Heathrow airport cancelled half of its flights as the snow and cold weather continued to cause problems across the UK, stranding motorists and leaving roads icy and treacherous.

The travel chaos ensuedon Sunday as the worst of the wintry showers came to an end across the country and forecasters predicted dry conditions and a partial thaw.

Although the snow flurries are now expected to move eastwards, swaths of the UK were on “amber alert” on Sunday, the Met Office’s second highest severe weather warning, with icy conditions across much of England, Scotland and Wales.

Church Fenton in North Yorkshire and Wattisham in Suffolk recorded 16cm of snow, while up to 15cm was forecast for parts of Cumbria, Lincolnshire, East Anglia, North Yorkshire, the Peak District and the Midlands.

The icy spell has seen daytime temperatures plummet four or five degrees lower than average for February, traditionally the coldest month of the year.

Heathrow, which had initially cut only 30% of its flights, said the decision was intended to minimise disruption and was made in anticipation of freezing fog.

Although the runways, taxiways and stands had been cleared of snow, only half of the 1,300 scheduled flights went ahead. The London airport, however, said its snow plan had worked “far better” than in previous years, adding that it would operate a normal flight schedule on Monday.

A spokesman said Heathrow, which operates at 99.2% capacity, was “getting back to normal” as it worked to clear the backlog of flights. “We took the decision with airlines and air traffic control yesterday to reduce the flight schedule in advance,” he said.

“By cancelling flights in advance airlines have been able to rebook some people on to flights that are departing, and passengers have had better quality information about whether they can fly or not.”

Extra staff were being drafted into terminals to help passengers rebook flights, he added.Inbound flights to the airport were also affected, with six transatlantic flights from the US redirected to Shannon airport in Ireland because of the cold snap disruption.

Some were in UK airspace or on approach to London when they were ordered back over to Ireland.

Shannon Airport Authority confirmed arrangements were being made for 400 stranded passengers to stay overnight. The affected routes included Heathrow-bound services from Dallas, Miami, Houston, Washington, Denver and Atlanta.

The transport secretary, Justine Greening, said the authorities at Heathrow were taking the right approach to the problems created by the weather.

“Actually cancelling flights in advance so passengers don’t get to the airport and then find their flight being cancelled was one of the main recommendations of the inquiry that Heathrow held into the debacle last year when we saw huge disruption,” she told the BBC Sunday Politics programme.

“They are clearly trying to manage the airport and I think the most important thing is making sure that we put safety first. We’ve got to get planes up into the air and down on to the ground safely.

“That does take a little bit more time to make sure wings are de-iced and that the runways are clear, but over all they’re trying to do their best.”

The airport came in for heavy criticism following severe weather in December 2010 when Heathrow almost ground to a halt and thousands of passengers were forced to camp overnight in terminals. At the height of the chaos on 19 December, it was able to handle only around 20 flights.

A BAA-commissioned report later concluded the operator’s response to the pre-Christmas snow was “initially ineffective” and that the potential impact of the weather had not been fully anticipated in the days before the worst of the snow.

A spokesman for Gatwick said the airport was not experiencing “any major delays” on Sunday and had had to cancel only nine flights. “We’re taking a business as usual approach,” he added.

Stansted, Birmingham, Luton and Manchester airports were forced to suspend operations for a period on Saturday night as snow piled up on the runways, but normal service was expected to resume on Sunday.

A total of sSix flights were cancelled yesterday in Birmingham, where some passengers were forced to spend the night in thea terminal. But aA spokesman said the airport would catch up todayon Sunday, providing temperatures did not drop too much furtherlower.

In Luton, flights were “fully operational” with some delays due to snow clearing.

A couple of departures were cancelled at Stansted, but a spokesman for the airport said there was “movement” on and off the runway, adding: “Flights are subject to delays of up to about one hour”. Although the worst of the snowflurries will move eastwards, swathesswaths of the UK have been placed on amber alert, with the On the roads, motorists faced what the RAC described as a “dangerous cocktail of driving conditions” and were urged to stay at home. Some minor routes were closed altogether. Drivers on sections of the M25 in Hertfordshire were trapped in gridlock throughout the night.

One motorist, Tom Jones, was stranded in his car for more than seven hours. He told the BBC: “We joined the back of a tailback, never realising we would be spending the night on the motorway.”

He added that the Highways Agency had to deal with much bad driving, and that he had seen several cars stuck in ditches and many blocking the hard shoulder.

Thames Valley police said the snow had caused a tailback between junctions nine and four southbound on the M40 from about 9pm until the early hours of Sunday.

Police in Kent warned people not to travel unless absolutely essential, and urged people not to cause an obstruction if forced to abandon their vehicles.

The Highways Agency has issued an amber alert, advising people to take extra care while travelling because of “the increased risk of adverse driving conditions”.

The AA said it dealt with about 1,500 callouts an hour on Saturday.Rail services have also been affected, with disruption set to continue throughout Sunday.

Southern Railway said trains were subject to delay and cancellation, with journey times extended by up to 30 minutes.

In London, all bus routes were operating on Sunday morning after a few “curtailments” to night bus services, Transport for London said.

Tube services were said to have started well but delays and suspensions soon set in on most lines.

A Met Office yellow alert, which warns people to be aware, was in place for the Highlands and Northern Ireland.

The Department for Transport has said it was better prepared than ever for severe weather. Salt stocks across Britain stand at more than 2.4m tonnes, a million more than last year.

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Rising public resentment blamed on government focus on alleged ‘scrounger’ fraud and inflammatory media coverage

The government’s focus on alleged fraud and overclaiming to justify cuts in disability benefits has caused an increase in resentment and abuse directed at disabled people, as they find themselves being labelled as scroungers, six of the country’s biggest disability groups have warned.

Some of the charities say they are now regularly contacted by people who have been taunted on the street about supposedly faking their disability and are concerned the climate of suspicion could spill over into violence or other hate crimes.

While the charities speaking out – Scope, Mencap, Leonard Cheshire Disability, the National Autistic Society, Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), and Disability Alliance – say inflammatory media coverage has played a role in this, they primarily blame ministers and civil servants for repeatedly highlighting the supposed mass abuse of the disability benefits system, much of which is unfounded.

At the same time, they say, the focus on “fairness for taxpayers” has fostered the notion that disabled people are a separate group who don’t contribute.

Scope’s regular polling of people with disabilities shows that in September two-thirds said they had experienced recent hostility or taunts, up from 41% four months before. In the last poll almost half said attitudes towards them had deteriorated in the past year.

Tom Madders, head of campaigns at the National Autistic Society, said: “The Department for Work and Pensions is certainly guilty of helping to drive this media narrative around benefits, portraying those who receive benefits as workshy scroungers or abusing a system that’s really easy to cheat.”

He added that ministers such as the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, were being “deeply irresponsible” in conflating Disability Living Allowance (DLA), which helps disabled people hold down jobs, and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), a payment for those unable to work. This “scrounger rhetoric” was already having an impact on people’s lives, Madders said, citing a woman who rang the charity to say a neighbour who formerly gave lifts to her autistic child had stopped doing so following press articles about disabled people receiving free cars under a government scheme.

Some disabled people say the climate is so hostile they avoid going out, or avoid using facilities such as designated parking bays if they “don’t look disabled”.

The government has committed to making significant cuts to disability benefits, including a 20% reduction in the DLA bill by 2015/16. Much of its public focus has been on alleged fraudulent claims or cutting benefits to those whose conditions have improved.

Charities point to a series of ministerial statements arguing that the “vast majority” of new ESA claimants are able to work, while the disabilities minister, Maria Miller, said last month that £600m of DLA was overpaid each year, not mentioning that a greater sum is saved by others not receiving what they are due.

This is “playing directly into a media narrative about the need to weed out scroungers,” said Richard Hawkes, chief executive of Scope. “Our polling shows that this narrative has coincided with attitudes towards disabled people getting worse.

“Disabled people tell us that increasingly people don’t believe that they are disabled and suddenly feel empowered to question their entitlement to support.”

David Congdon, head of policy at Mencap, said the charity feared where this could lead. “We are concerned that this narrative of benefit scroungers or fakers connected to the welfare reform bill does risk stigmatising all people with a disability,” he said. “The worry would be that this could lead to an increase in resentment against disabled people, and even an increase in hate crimes.”

There was “an incredibly strong focus on benefit fraud within the DWP”, said Guy Parckar, policy manager for Leonard Cheshire. “It is mentioned at all possible opportunities. Of course, whenever there is fraud you want that to be tackled, but there should be some serious thought given to the long-term impact that this has. There is the impact of potential hate crime, and issues around that.”

Neil Coyle, head of policy for Disability Alliance, said his organisation was being told of increasing levels of verbal abuse, and worried this could lead to attacks.

“There’s a lot of concern that the level of abuse and harassment goes unrecorded because it’s seen almost as a norm. It seems to be growing as a result of a mis-perception of much more widespread abuse of benefits than actually exists. That’s being fed by the DWP in their attempts to justify massive reductions in welfare expenditure.”

A DWP spokeswoman said the department was committed to supporting disabled people but needed to “do more to change negative attitudes”, and had begun a cross-government consultation on tackling discrimination.

She said: “Our welfare reforms are designed to restore integrity into the benefits system and to ensure that everyone who needs help and support receives it.”

David Gillon from Chatham in Kent, said: “I think we’ve lost all the progress we made in the last 30 years in terms of acceptance.” Gillon, whose chronic back condition forced him to give up a job with British Aerospace, recounts walking on crutches past a pub in the middle of the day and receiving shouts of: “We’re going to report you to the DWP.” He said: “When there’s a bad article in the press, the next day you think, ‘Do I really need to go out of the house?’ We’re being forced back into the attic, locked away from society.”

Fazilet Hadi, head of inclusion for the RNIB, said she also felt the tone was set by ministers: “I think they should be more careful. At the moment it feels like the government is not on the side of disabled people. Most people don’t have that much exposure to disabled people. They don’t see us in the lifestyle pages, they don’t see us in the fashion pages. The only reference they see is in these stories. And that’s why the language is so important.”

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Heathrow flights grounded and motorists warned of dangerous driving conditions as Met Office issues severe weather warning

Around 400 flights from Heathrow will be cancelled due to snow and freezing fog, while motorists have been warned they face a “dangerous cocktail of driving conditions” as the big chill takes hold of the country. Forecasters have said they expect the freezing weather to last for several days.

Parts of the UK have been placed on amber alert, the Met Office’s second-highest severe weather warning, until 9am on Sunday and most parts of the country will wake up to a blanket of snow, with up to 15cm forecast in some places. Southern Scotland and parts of Wales were badly hit before the snow moved across south-east England.

Heathrow’s chief operating officer, Normand Boivin, said the decision to introduce a revised flight schedule before snow had actually fallen had been taken in an effort to minimise disruption. British Airways said it would allow passengers booked on Sunday flights to rebook for journeys between Monday and Thursday. Southern Railways reported it was reducing services on some of its routes on Sunday.

The cold snap has already seen daytime temperatures fall four or five degrees lower than average for February. A temperature of -10.6C was recorded in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, at 2am on Saturday, and of -10.3C in Benson, Oxfordshire, making it the coldest night of the year so far.

“We have got a band of rain, sleet and snow pushing in from western parts,” said Met Office forecaster Michael Lawrence. “This is running over colder air and that’s going to give some fairly significant snowfall, mainly in eastern and central parts of Britain and – to some extent – large parts of the UK.”

While the worst snowfall will be restricted to Cumbria, Lincolnshire, East Anglia and the Midlands, many other regions will still get significant falls of between 5cm and 10cm. Wales and the south-west, along with parts of western Scotland, will mostly see rain, however, as will Northern Ireland.

The freeze, which is likely to continue this week, is also expected to cause treacherous conditions on the roads. “It looks like we’re going to get a dangerous cocktail of driving conditions this weekend, with heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures making the roads extremely treacherous,” said Kevin Andrews of the RAC.

The RAC said it was attending 70% more breakdowns than normal. The AA added it had been called out to deal with more than 4,300 vehicles on Saturdaymorning and the figure was expected to reach 16,000 by the end of the day, almost double the 8,500 callout for a typical Saturday. Motorists were also advised to take shovels, warm clothes and fully charged phones on their journeys.

The Local Government Association pledged that an army of council staff and volunteers would be ready to brave the conditions to make sure vulnerable people were cared for. It said: “Thousands of new grit bins have been placed in estates and side streets, residents have been given their own bags of salt along with salt spreaders in some neighbourhoods, and arrangements have been made with parish councils, community groups, snow wardens and farmers to grit hard to reach areas. Information about school closures and bin collections is also being updated regularly online.”

British Gas added that its fleet of all-weather 4x4s was on standby to get engineers out to customers. The company said it had received more than 200,000 calls in the last five days, compared with 120,000 to 140,000 during a normal winter week, and was expecting a further 50,000 this weekend, compared with 20,000 normally in the winter.

The Department for Transport has said it is better prepared than ever for severe winter weather. Salt stocks across Britain stand at more than 2.4m tonnes – a million more than last year.

However, the charity Age UK warned that it was a dangerous time for older people. Besides the risk of flu, low temperatures raise blood pressure, putting people at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Among yesterday’s sporting fixtures that were postponed because of the weather were Portsmouth’s game against Hull and Doncaster’s match against Reading.

In League One, Bournemouth against Exeter, Sheffield United’s clash at Colchester, Oldham versus Leyton Orient and Charlton against Rochdale were also postponed as were Preston’s game against Brentford, Stevenage’s trip to Notts County, and the Bury versus Hartlepool match. Walsall’s trip to Scunthorpe also fell foul of the weather.

In Scotland, Falkirk’s Scottish Cup match at Ayr was called off while, of the country’s league programme, only the Third Division games at East Stirling, Montrose and Queens Park went ahead.

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Reuters: Business News

US and Mexican coastguards search for 30-year-old seen falling from deck of world’s largest cruise ship

A British passenger on the world’s biggest cruise ship has apparently gone overboard in waters near Mexico.

The 30-year-old man was seen falling over the railings by another passenger on the Allure of the Seas, the Royal Caribbean International cruise firm said. He could also be seen falling over in CCTV footage.

The man went overboard as the ship was sailing to Cozumel, Mexico, and the Mexican navy and coastguard are assisting in the search.The company added: “The ship made multiple public announcements and began a complete search of the ship, in efforts to locate the guest.

“When the guest did not respond and was not found on board, the captain alerted the local authorities.

“The location of the ship at the time the guest went overboard was marked on the ship’s GPS and the US and Mexican coastguard were alerted.

“Our care team is providing support to the guest’s family and our thoughts and prayers are with them,” the statement said.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “We are aware of the reports and are looking into them.”

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Investigators can be heard discussing joint inquiry into cybercrime in 15-minute call released on the internet

Hackers from the group Anonymous have broadcast a private conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard exposing details of an international cybercrime investigation, the FBI has confirmed.

The FBI and Scotland Yard admitted that the security of the call had been breached.

Investigators can be heard discussing their joint inquiry into a cybercrime investigation going through the British courts, and linked to investigations in New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Ireland.

It is understood the breach occurred at the US end of the call. As the news broke, Anonymous began taunting the FBI, asking if it was curious about how the group could keep reading the bureau’s internal communications.

Investigators can be heard on the broadcast talking about named individuals who have been charged in the UK with hacking into the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).

In one lengthy exchange, the British contingent can be heard discussing a 15-year-old hacker as a “wannabe” and a “pain in the bum”. The 15-minute call has been broadcast on the internet, but the names of some of the individuals being sought have been bleeped out by the hackers.

Scotland Yard said: “We are aware of the video which relates to an FBI conference call involving a PCeU [member of the e-crime unit] representative. The matter is being investigated by the FBI.

“At this stage no operational risks to the MPS have been identified; however, we continue to carry out a full assessment. We are not prepared to discuss [it] further.”

The conference call was one that appears to be held weekly between officers from the Metropolitan police’s e-crime unit and the FBI in New York and Los Angeles.

The law enforcement agencies are working together on a cybercrime investigation involving teenagers and young people from the UK, Ireland, Germany and the US, it is understood.

Six people are going through the British courts charged in connection with hacking into computers belonging to Soca. They include Ryan Cleary, a British teenager who is charged with five offences of hacking websites. Cleary, 19, from Wickford, Essex, was arrested in June last year. His arrest was linked to a series of cyber-attacks by a group called LulzSec.

Cleary was charged over cyber-attacks against British-based targets. He is due to appear at Southwark crown court with his co-accused, Jake Davis, on 11 May. Four other individuals, are due to appear at the same court in March as part of the same investigation. Cleary has been charged with three attacks – on the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in November 2010, the British Phonographic Industry in October 2010, and on Soca.

The method he is alleged to have used is a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against all three websites. He was also charged with constructing a botnet, a network of infected computers that can be used remotely to direct attacks.

On the intercepted call, the British police officers joke with their FBI counterparts early in the conversation while they wait for others to join, and are heard making fun of Sheffield – where the Acpo cybercrime conference is being held next week. “It’s a khazi – not exactly a jewel in England’s crown,” says the British detective. The call, which took place nearly a fortnight ago – it is understood – includes a conversation about the appearance of Cleary and Davis at Southwark crown court last Friday.

The FBI official expresses his gratitude to the British officers for “being flexible” and co-ordinating with them. “New York appreciates it,” the FBI operative says.

In response, the British detective says: “We have cocked things up in the past.”

The British detective then gives the FBI details of a 15-year-old who was arrested in the UK before Christmas. He calls the 15-year-old a “wannabe” and is connected with two other teenagers who are known as CSL sec “Cant Stop Laughing Security”.

“He is just a pain in the bum,” the officer says. The call ends with all parties agreeing to talk again the following Monday.

The events leading to the arrest of Cleary involved an investigation by British police and the FBI. The bureau’s involvement, plus the nature of the targets, raised the prospect of Washington seeking the teenager’s extradition to the US.

The conference call reveals that two other individuals are to be arrested in the future. It makes clear that the investigation is complex, stretching across international boundaries and focusing on teenage hackers in many different cases.

Karen Todner, a lawyer for Cleary, said the recording could be “incredibly sensitive” and warned such data breaches had the potential to derail the police’s work. If they haven’t secured their email it could potentially prejudice the investigation,” she told Associated Press.Anonymous is a collection of internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included the Church of Scientology, the music industry, and financial companies such as Visa and MasterCard.

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