Ministers in emergency meeting over big freeze

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond summoned the group for an hour-long meeting to "stocktake" and discuss preparations for the weekend, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

The top-level discussions came after meterologists said there was no end in sight to the bad weather and after two pensioners fell and died in their gardens in Cumbria after spending freezing nights outside.

The deaths prompted charities to urge residents to check on elderly neighbours.

Downing Street declined to guarantee the country would not run out of salt and grit, saying the nation was "in a much better position than we were last year".

The spokeswoman added there were "no major concerns" over supplies of food, petrol, diesel or gas despite the continued freezing conditions.

Gas supplies were higher than last winter and so far there have been "no supply issues related to the cold weather".

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, education minister Sarah Teather, health minister Paul Burstow and energy minister Lord Marland were joined by representatives of the Met Office and local councils at today's meeting, with the Scottish Justice Secretary also involved via telephone.

Despite Downing Street's assurances, the Retail Motor Industry Independent Petrol Retailers' Association said some forecourts were out of fuel and others could run out of petrol, and especially diesel, by the weekend.

This week has seen airports close, trains grind to a halt and millions of travellers' plans thrown into chaos because of continued snowfall and plummeting temperatures.

Mr Hammond, under fire from Labour and told to "get a grip" of the situation, announced a review of how transport operators have coped with the big chill.

Neil Bentley, of the Confederation of British Industry said: "Given the critical economic importance of the transport network, this review is as welcome as it is timely."

But he added: "It is important that transport providers work with the Government to improve the ability of the network to cope with adverse weather conditions."

Politicians are keen to avoid a repeat of last year's panic over road salt supplies when emergency deliveries were made to councils up and down the country.

This time last year the Highways Agency had 227,000 tonnes of salt.

It now has 260,000 tonnes and local authorities in England have 1.2 million tonnes.

It will be badly needed as meteorologists and driving groups issued nationwide warnings that the end is far from in sight.

The Met Office said there was no sign of a big thaw and Aisling Creevey, a forecaster with Meteogroup, the Press Association's weather division, said: "It's a big, icy mess - I would be really advising caution, it is going to take time to thaw out."

Road rescue groups the AA and the RAC were dealing with 2,000 and 2,500 breakdowns an hour respectively, they said, way in excess of normal levels.

Rail operators were faring little better, with delays across the country, and hundreds of schools remained closed.

As of 1pm as many as 28% of rail services were not running, and of those able to operate only 53% were running on time.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) said services in south east England and Scotland were the hardest hit.

Atoc chief executive Michael Roberts said: "We recognise that lessons can be learnt and, in particular, that the whole industry needs to get better at handling disruption."

He said he understood passengers' frustrations and that the focus today remained "on getting people to where they want to go as quickly and easily as possible".

The weekend's sporting fixtures have also taken a battering by the weather.

A question mark hangs over Saturday's early evening Barclays Premier League tie between Blackpool and Manchester United because of Bloomfield Road's frozen pitch.

Leaders QPR's trip to Hull headed the list of postponements in the npower Championship.

The clash was cancelled on safety grounds by the Tigers, meaning the match went the same way as Nottingham Forest v Bristol City and Portsmouth v Burnley.

The South Yorkshire derby between Doncaster and Barnsley is also off, like Reading's trip to Sheffield United.

The weather hit hard in the lower divisions, with only four League One matches - those at Swindon, Exeter, Bristol Rovers and Brentford - surviving, and just two - at Northampton and Oxford - in League Two.

All tomorrow's six top-flight matches in Scotland were postponed on Wednesday due to safety concerns over the snow and ice which have covered the country, with new dates for the games yet to be announced.

This afternoon's race meeting at Lingfield was abandoned due to an unsafe track.

The fixture was originally given the go ahead following a 6am inspection, but the temperature dropped alarmingly after the green light had been given.

Races at Hexham on Wednesday, Bangor on Monday and Sedgefield on Tuesday were also among events scrubbed because of the weather.

This afternoon Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman spoke out to stop shoppers panic buying food.

She said: "There is no problem with the supply of food at the moment.

"Stories about some shops having empty shelves are caused by a slight disruption to the timing of supermarket deliveries, which is only to be expected in this kind of weather, but the fact remains that deliveries are happening regularly.

"Buying extra supplies of food won't help the situation and will only end up with people wasting money and wasting food, and I don't think anyone wants to see that."

Eurostar cancelled 17 trips today, because of poor weather conditions in the UK and Northern France.

The high speed passenger train, which operates between the UK and Europe, advised it would run on a significantly reduced timetable until at least Sunday.

Ten scheduled trips were cancelled for Saturday.

In addition to the cancellations, Eurostar said there would be delays of up to 90 minutes.

A spokesman said: "We are strongly advising customers booked for travel until Sunday to postpone their journey if it is not essential."

Free exchanges or refunds were being offered as compensation.