Essex County Council’s plans to cope with the first heavy snow of the winter were not up to the task, the highways boss has admitted.

The county’s fleet of 65 winter gritters were sent out twice yesterday morning to treat 1,800-miles of main roads.

But despite the best efforts of more than 100 employees, commuters on the A12 and in much of the south of Essex faced gridlock.

Norman Hume, Essex county councillor responsible for highways and transport, admitted the council’s response to the conditions has “not been sufficient”, but he blamed the snow arriving just before rush hour.

He said: “It has been pretty bad. We had our gritters out as planned at 1am and we had them out again at 5am.

“However despite that, it has clearly not been sufficient.

“It’s a fact the roads weren’t in great condition after the early morning snowfall, and they were exceedingly dangerous.

“I just hope this is not a precursor of the whole winter. I know this will lead to some criticism, but the time the snow came was not helpful.”

Mr Hume said the problems, caused mainly by the early morning snowfall, had been exacerbated by a minority of motorists driving badly.

He said: “There have been issues with the road, and that’s because of the volume and the timing of the snowfall.

“We have had reports of people behaving extremely badly and driving too fast, overtaking when they shouldn’t.

“It may be people don’t respect this weather enough.”

Despite admitting the cold weather had defeated the best efforts of the county, Mr Hume said he had taken the best approach in the circumstances.

He said: “Essentially, we did what was said on the tin.

“The resources we put in, we think are appropriate for what we normally see.

“From an Essex County Council perspective, we could probably double the amount of vehicles we have out there.

“Obviously all that has to be paid for by the people in increased charges.

“The other thing that could be done is people could equip themselves with winter tyres or snow chains for this sort of occasion.

“We don’t, as a nation, resource ourselves to meet this sort of weather because it does not occur normally.”