BRITONS continued to face travel misery today as a row erupted over why the country was caught out by the cold snap.
Thousands were affected by snow chaos yesterday as roads became gridlocked, train services and flights were cancelled and airports shut down completely.
And there was fury as hundreds spent the night in their freezing cars as they were caught up in crippling tailbacks.
Having himself endured some of the dreadful driving conditions in BASINGSTOKE, HANTS, yesterday, AA president Edmund King today accused local authorities of "not acting sooner and more thoroughly" to treat ice and snow-bound roads.
He blasted: "Some key roads have not been gritted at all."
Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said he would be "asking questions" about the difficulties in Basingstoke and READING, BERKS, where up to 2,000 motorists were trapped last night and many cars were abandoned.
Mr Khan said local authorities had enough grit and the issue was why it had not been applied.
But the Local Government Association (LGA) today rejected "unfounded accusations" that councils had been ill-prepared for the onset of severe weather and that they had been withholding salt from where it was needed.
Councillor David Sparks, chairman of the LGA's transport and regeneration board, said: "Councillors and council workers are drivers too and understand how frustrating and distressing some drivers are finding this week's severe weather.
"Councils know how important it is to keep Britain moving, even in the worst conditions."
The AA said it had had its busiest night for breakdowns in 25 years and that by 8am today it had around 6,500 breakdowns pending, with 700 coming in every hour.
The organisation added that some of its patrol teams had been stuck in the Basingstoke gridlock for five hours yesterday.
Forecasters fear that their original prediction of one or two inches of snow last night may have been an underestimate, and warned that much of the South East may see more than four inches tonight.
Temperatures could drop to as low as -6C (21F) in some parts of the country, the Met Office said.
Baby Remy Wass bounced into the world in the middle of a blizzard today — thanks to a team of police officers.
Paramedics were unable to reach mum Justine after snow-covered roads meant that ambulances were stuck on gridlocked roads in Emmer Green, near Reading.
Eventually a cop to helped Justine prepare for the birth while his woman inspector dashed to hospital in her own 4x4 to collect two midwives and the expectant dad.
Justine said: "It was a wonderful experience which I will never forget. It's a good story to tell him when he's older that one wintry night in the worst weather conditions in 25 years he was born at home in the lounge.
"It's a fantastic Christmas story. He's great, happy and healthy and he's a big boy."
Tragically a man found dead in a reservoir yesterday could have fallen through the ice as he attempted to rescue his stranded dog on a lake in LOCKSTOCK, BOLTON.
The pining German Shepherd was found barking beside his parked car nearby and a dog lead was later recovered from the man's pockets, police said.
Police believe that the dog stood by the car throughout the night. The unnamed man was last seen leaving home for a walk on Sunday afternoon.
The ice near to where the body was found was broken and footprints leading up to the waters were discovered in snow on the banking.
Meanwhile a police search was underway today for two men feared drowned after trying to rescue their pet dog from an icy lake.
Underwater search teams were trawling Brightwell Lake, near RINGSTEAD, NORTHANTS, in an effort to find Paul Lichfield, 30, and Philip Surridge, 42.
Fears were also growing last night for Adam Passfield, 22 — last seen in Chelmsford, Essex, early on Saturday after an evening with pals.
Two men, aged 63 and 48, and a woman, 78, died on Sunday after a Mercedes and a pick-up truck crashed on the snow-covered A20 at WROTHAM, KENT. Three others were seriously hurt.
It also emerged today that a man is thought to have frozen to death on one of the coldest nights of the year.
Donald Martin, 35, died in hospital after being found unconscious in the back garden of his home on Scotland's ISLE OFLEWIS, on Saturday.
And 60-year-old grandmother Jeanette Wright is in a serious condition in hospital after she became locked out of her home in GOREBRIDGE,MIDLOTHIAN, in sub-zero temperatures.
She was found "frozen in a ball" by a 17-year-old neighbour after apparently spending seven hours out in the open.
Thousands of Christmas shoppers were also caught out by yesterday's afternoon blizzards.
More than 100 customers, staff and children spent the night in a DEPARTMENT STORE after they were stranded by snow.
The 54 staff, about 30 adult customers and 20 children were provided with food and a bed in the bed department of John Lewis in HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKS, after heavy snow gridlocked local roads.
A further 15 customers had to bed down in the town's branch of Sainsbury's. They grabbed pillows, blankets and toys for children to ensure they had a comfortable night.
Meanwhile, Buckinghamshire County Council said the grit it put down was USELESS because the roads were TOO COLD.
Transport head Jim Stevens said: "The road temperatures are -8C, which is extremely unusual. The type of salt we use is rock salt. It becomes less and less efficient the colder the road surface is."
And drivers who abandoned their cars in a pub car park in WINCHESTER, HANTS, returned this morning to find them CLAMPED.
Motorists left their vehicles outside the Roebuck Inn after ice and heavy snow caused traffic to grind to a halt.
One driver said: "It's unbelievable."
Clamping firm Cobra Security said motorists should have parked their cars "by the side of the road".
Meanwhile, all cars abandoned on motorways last night have been taken off the roads, with their owners forced to pay to collect them, Thames Valley Police said.
Power cuts in WEST BERKSHIRE and HAMPSHIRE hit 14,900 people tonight. The fire service urged people to use torches rather than candles.
Despite forecasts predicting bad weather was on the way travellers were left powerless to escape the misery and mayhem of December 21, Midwinter's Day.
Luton Airport was closed overnight. It opened at 6.30am today, but a number of flights were cancelled and others delayed.
EasyJet cancelled all flights from Luton and Glasgow, while a number of the low-cost airline's flights were also axed at Gatwick and Stansted today.
Around 14 early-morning arrivals and departures for airline WizzAir were also cancelled at Luton.
Drivers were also hit by snow misery across the country.
Doug Kew, 27, took six hours to travel three miles home from the centre of Reading. He said: "There was even a snowman made at the traffic lights."
Cops in HAMPSHIRE opened a special incident centre to co-ordinate emergency calls. A spokesman said: "Most A-roads are impassable."
While officers in ALTON, HANTS, set up a rest centre for drivers.
This morning, the SEVERN bridges between south Wales and south-west England were closed because of falling ice. Both were re-opened at 2.30pm.
Meanwhile the ambulance service for BUCKINGHAMSHIRE and BERKSHIRE said it was facing severe problems getting its vehicles to the sick.
A spokesman said: "People aren't letting ambulances through — but that is not necessarily their fault because there isn't anywhere to go when the streets are gridlocked."
The service declared the conditions a "level four" emergency — the highest category apart from a major disaster.
The Royal Berkshire Hospital also cancelled all operations and appointments and will only be treating emergencies, a spokesman said.
Friends and relatives of in-patients were asked to delay their visits until the treacherous weather conditions improve.
And if motorists were having a tough time it was just as bad for those trying to escape the madness by train.
EUROSTAR resumed restricted service this morning. But only travellers scheduled to cross the Channel on Saturday or Sunday were allowed to board. Anyone with tickets for yesterday and today will be allowed to travel tomorrow.
The firm's chief executive said tonight that services will not return to normal until AFTER CHRISTMAS.
Speaking at a press conference to launch an independent inquiry into the disruption, Richard Brown said: "We will not be fully back to normal until after Christmas because we have a number of trains which have to be repaired and we have modifications to do.
"The good news is that if you turn up at the station we are able to take all the passengers that are turning up to travel.
"We have been pretty successful in clearing the backlog of passengers waiting to travel since both Saturday and Sunday."
There was disbelief last night as bosses blamed the pre-Christmas shambles on the French snow being too FLUFFY.
Commercial director Nick Mercer said: "It seems to be a strange combination of factors. It was the amount of snow, it was lighter than normal, fluffier, and the temperature inside the tunnel and humidity was higher than normal."
Yesterday, piling on the pain, EUROTUNNEL also began turning away customers for its car-carrying trains.
More than 1,000 passengers hoping to hop on to its roll-on roll-off trains to France were left stuck at the terminal in FOLKESTONE, KENT, as day-trip bookings were cancelled.
In all, 55,000 people were left stranded because Eurostar and Eurotunnel were unable to cope. An urgent inquiry into the Eurostar mayhem was launched yesterday.
Christopher Garnett, a former commercial director of Eurotunnel, will lead investigations into the disruptions. Results were likely to be returned next month, he said.
He added: "We are keen to get on with this review and ascertain the causes and impact of Eurostar's problems over recent days."
Customers with tickets who choose not to travel during the chaos can claim a refund.
Heavy snow was expected to hit MANCHESTER AIRPORT this evening following the earlier successful operation to clear its main runway.
But there was some good news for travellers.
UK airline Flybe put on extra flights to Paris to try to ease the Eurostar situation.
And BA were using larger planes — including a jumbo jet — on its services to the French capital.
There was no word on the chaos from PM Gordon Brown last night.
But Tory chief David Cameron voiced fury at the way Eurostar passengers had suffered.
He said: "I feel hugely sorry for them and it's incredibly frustrating."
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