RESIDENTS, businesses and local authorities around Malvern were last night preparing to deal with the latest round of wintry weather.

The Malvern Hills Trust warned that low temperatures and strong winds could mean a wind chill factor of -20C on the summit of the hills.

Hundreds of homes and businesses in and around Upton had their water supply cut off for several hours yesterday. Severn Trent said that the fault was caused by a piece of equipment that had frozen.

The water supply failed at around 7am, and Severn Trent sent in teams to search for the cause of the problem.

St Gabriel's in Hanley Swan and Hanley Castle High School were both forced to close.

The water company issued a statement apologising for the problem and for customers' delays in getting through to them.

"The number of calls coming into our contact centres as a result of both this and due to customers concerned about frozen pipes means that it's taking us longer than normal to get all of them answered.

"We'd like to apologise to everyone who's been affected this morning and also to everyone who's having to wait a little longer than usual to get through to our teams."

At 11am, the company said that the problem had been fixed. It said: "Everyone should see their water supplies returning to normal in the next couple of hours. The problem was caused by a frozen piece of equipment that saw reduced water supplies getting to customers.

"That has now been fixed so everyone should either already have supplies restored or can expect to have everything back to normal in the near future."

A statement from Hanley Castle High School said: "We learned of this problem just before 8.30am and immediately worked with parents and the bus companies to ensure that all children were able to travel back home safely. We would like to thank Pat Bennett and the drivers of First Group, Astons, Newbury, our other transport providers and parents for their support in this emergency."

The school was due to remain closed today and reopen on Monday.

The Chase closed at lunchtime, as did primary schools including Leigh and Bransford, St James West Malvern, St Joseph's, Wyche, Malvern Wells, Malvern Parish, Northleigh and St Matthias.

The Met Office reported that persistent snowfalls were expected to start yesterday afternoon, with strong winds that could produce blizzard conditions remaining bitterly cold.

Today is expected to be cold and windy with further outbreaks of snow. Winds will decrease over the weekend and it will turn a little less cold.

A Malvern Hills Trust spokesman said: ""If you are visiting the hills, please take care as many of the paths will be extremely slippy. Signs have been put up on the road to St Ann's Well as conditions here are very poor. The wind chill on the tops of the hills could result in a temperature that feels like -20 degrees Celsius."

The trust also cancelled a volunteer conservation day tomorrow (Saturday).

Malvern Hills District Council urged people to look out for their neighbours. "If there’s someone in your street who’s elderly and vulnerable, take a few minutes to check they’re doing okay in the current weather."

Worcestershire County Council said: "We have taken a new delivery of rock salt at our Malvern depot so we are ready and prepared to help keep you moving on the roads."

Malvern Hills District Council reported that refuse collection was being carried out as normal yesterday, but disruption to the service was expected today.

The snow caused the postponement of a fundraising event due to have been held in the town centre tomorrow (Saturday).

Staff and pupils of Malvern St James school were due to hold a 12-hour rowing challenge outside Waitrose starting at 7am, in aid of King’s College Hospital in London. But yesterday, the school decided to pull the event and reschedule it at a later date.

And another victim of the weather was a talk due to be held to naturalist Johnny Birks at Malvern Book Co-op yesterday evening.