SCHOOLS and other services will remain closed on Thursday, it has been confirmed.

West Dunbartonshire Council confirmed on their social media earlier on Wednesday that schools would be closed to staff and pupils on March 1 after the Met Office issued Scotland’s first ever red weather alert from 3pm.

They then extended the closures for Friday, keeping council buildings closed until Monday.

Glasgow City Council also confirmed they would stay shut until Monday.

Other closures include West College Scotland, the Macmillan drop-in service at Clydebank Library, and Clydebank and Drumchapel Jobcentres, which are both closed.

DWP said in a statement: “Payments will still take place as normal, however all interviews at the affected sites will be re-scheduled.”

Some council services are still available, such as the homelessness service.

ScotRail shut down the rail network on Wednesday afternoon and said they would not run trains “until late morning at the very earliest - and even then we will only be introducing a small number of services if it is safe to do so”.

They added: “If the red weather warning from the Met Office does end at 10am, we will still be in amber. The weather will remain very bad throughout the day so please do not travel.”

On Thursday morning, they published a photo of the state of Glasgow Central, its rails buried under snow. They tweeted the only services running this morning are in Aberdeen and Inverness.

Clydebank Post:

First Glasgow announced their services would remain off for the morning. 

Operations Director Duncan Cameron said: “The First Glasgow team have had a further meeting this morning and unfortunately, a further assessment of the weather and road conditions around the network, has seen no change in conditions.

"As a result, there will be no services running this morning at all. The safety of our staff and customers is of the utmost importance and as such this was the only decision that could be taken at this point. 

“We will have to take an hourly assessment of the situation and we will provide further updates as the day progresses with a view to being ready to get services back to normal as soon as it is safe to do so. We will provide a further update this afternoon.”

Glasgow Airport said on Thursday morning they would remain closed until 3pm at the earliest based on the forecast.

But even as essential services shut down for the storm, Bankies stepped up to the challenge. 

Yesterday, Planet Fitness in Dalmuir opened its doors to anyone stranded or homeless. 

NHS 24 Medical Director Dr Laura Ryan also told the Post their staff have been busy keeping the service running.

She said: “We have seen many staff battle the elements to get to our centres, including on foot and we have arranged transport and accommodation to get people into work where possible.

"We will today continue to work with other agencies to make arrangements for staff to be picked up and brought in to centres. We have had staff volunteering to come in early ahead of the weather, and coming in to work when they were not on shift.

"Our people have been amazing in their efforts to deliver services and we pay tribute to them for their endurance and support. This includes frontline and support staff.

“This will inevitably have an impact on the access to the service, while the extreme weather continues over the coming days and we would ask the public to only call if they absolutely need support.

"Many GP surgeries are experiencing difficulty opening and while we will do what we can to help, we would advise the public only to call if they cannot wait until their surgery opens. If you do need to call us, please be patient as it may take longer to have your call answered. 

“There’s lots of information to support for people on www.nhsinform.scot and through our Self Help Guides and we are posting regular updates on our Facebook and Twitter channels.”