For families, the weekend snowfall gave them a chance to enjoy a spot of sledging and snowman building. But for others, Saturday night's blizzard left them with no choice but to abandon their cars or travel plans because of the treacherous conditions.

About four inches (10cm) of snow fell on Saturday, closing East Midlands Airport and blanketing roads, fields and parks.

Hundreds of visitors flocked to Bradgate Park yesterday, seizing the first opportunity of the winter to get their sledges out.

Sally Hurn, 36, of Woodhouse Eaves, went with her family.

She said: "It was gorgeous and lovely weather with the bright blue sky and all the snowy trees. We did some sledging, threw snowballs at each other and built an igloo.

"The park was packed."

The opportunity was also seized enthusiastically across the county to build snowmen of all shapes and sizes.

However, not everyone enjoyed the weather.

Many steep roads were impassable and Burleys Flyover, in Leicester, was among the routes shut.

Motorists reported seeing abandoned cars as drivers gave up trying to control their vehicles in the difficult conditions.

There were reports of vehicles being left on the A50 between Coalville and Leicester and in the south of the city. Buses were also abandoned.

Arriva said villages including East Goscote, Coleorton and Ratby had no services because vehicles could not reach them.

There was a significantly reduced service also in Leicester.

Those services that did continue faced severe delays as vehicles moved slowly through the snow.

Elsewhere, where people did venture out, cars found the going tricky and passers-by were needed to help to push cars up hills around Wigston.

Despite the Mercury being contacted by people who said they did not think the county's roads had been gritted, Leicestershire County Council said it had done what it could to keep the roads open.

It said snow ploughs were attached to the fronts of the gritter fleet as it began its rounds at 5.30pm on Saturday, when the light snowfall turned into a blizzard.

A council spokesman said: "Our gritters went out on Saturday evening and again yesterday, with farmers using tractors and ploughs to clear roads in rural areas.

"The gritters covered 45 per cent of the roads we are responsible for but the ploughs do only remove the bulk of the snow.

"It's important for people to understand they cannot completely clear the roads.

"We are continuing to monitor the weather and will take action where necessary."

Police said they had been involved in removing vehicles abandoned in the road in cases where they were obstructing the highway.

That included several on the A47 between Leicester and Rutland which had slid off the road and been abandoned.

Fire crews were called after a car crashed into a ditch in Lowesby and there were single-vehicle accidents in Lutterworth, Gartree, Great Dalby and Cosby on Saturday night.

None are believed to have resulted in serious injuries.

At East Midlands Airport, about 1,000 passengers were affected by an eight-hour closure.

Five flights were diverted to other airports and one departure cancelled.

The airport reopened at about 12.30am yesterday with some knock-on effects causing delays through the morning.

A spokesman said: "We had a tough time on Saturday night.

"We survived the first couple of hours because we knew it was coming but because it was so heavy and so prolonged, we had to suspend operations." Mercury weatherman Dave Mutton said the snow could return in a couple of days.

He said: "We had about four inches of snow by 11pm on Saturday, which is similar to the heaviest falls of last winter.

"It's going to stay unsettled with frost each night this week.

"February is obviously going to be the wintry month.

"We've already recorded temperatures as low as -9.4C and we can expect anything."

The forecast was for thick patchy fog today, with temperatures not dropping below 0C.

Daytime temperatures are not expected to get higher than 3C this week.

The next snow is expected on Wednesday or Thursday.

Rush-hour warning after snow hits Leicestershire

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