As parts of Essex are still covered in snow, the council’s gritters will be out to keep the roads clear and traffic moving.

The gritters will be out on all 57 salting routes in Essex between 2pm and 5pm this afternoon.

They will also hit the roads overnight between 2am and 5am.

An Essex Highways spokesman said: "The minimum overnight road temperature is around -6.5 degrees.

"If you need to travel please plan ahead and check which routes are gritted."

Residents can check which roads are gritted using Essex Highways' handy map at essexhighways.org/salting-routes#map.

Travel chaos struck across large parts of the UK today as ice, fog and snow caused disruption following the coldest night of the year so far.

The Met Office said that the lowest temperature recorded was -15.6C at Braemer in Aberdeenshire, with the five next coldest temperatures all recorded in Scotland, including -13.1 at Balmoral.

Andrewsfield in Essex was among the locations with fresh snow on Sunday with 9cm recorded.

Roads in eastern and south-east England were among the worst affected.

Drivers on northern sections of the M25 were stranded for several hours as traffic was at a standstill.