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Heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures across parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England have caused major traffic problems.

The Met Office is warning of icy roads across much of the UK and Central Scotland police advise essential journeys only.

A number of ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website readers were stuck over night on Monday, unable to get home because of bad weather.

My husband Tim, our two-year-old daughter, Mia, our dog, Kenco and I were all stuck in our car on the M8 for 11 hours yesterday.

I am five months pregnant. It was a horrendous journey.

It occurred to us that if there is a lack of infrastructure, like gritters and manpower to prevent these situations, why is there not better management of the traffic flow?

For example, why not have better control of traffic entering these main junctions and motorways, so that, when they are available gritters can enter the motorways to clear them.

One of the problems on the M8 on Monday evening was the presence of snow over old ice and compacted snow which had obviously not been cleared from last week, despite this more cars were allowed to enter the motorway - including large lorries which were struggling to cope with the icy conditions.

I left work on Monday afternoon and got home late Tuesday morning.

I was stranded because of the bad weather and had to stay in a call centre overnight.

I stayed with about ten people at a Travel Centre in East Kilbride after I couldn't get home from work.

The kind staff there left the centre open to give people shelter and warmth, without this I have no idea what I would have done.

We were sent home from work early because of the bad weather. There were no buses, so I went to the train station, we were told they were running, so I waited for an hour but nothing came.

I thought about walking the ten miles or so home and then came across the centre and a helpful woman called Yvonne.

I'm not bitter or angry at the authorities for this, it was an act of God, it's not their fault.

The police were really helpful and in the end, I managed to get a lift home. People have been very helpful, even strangers, but I think everyone pulls together at times of need.

I left work early, at midday, to avoid traffic. My journey usually takes 50 minutes at the most but on Monday it took 12 hours.

It was awful. No one was in attendance, no services were there.

People were desperate, they had no food or drink, temperatures were down to minus five, both the car and phone batteries were running out.

It was a travel disaster no-one seemed to be doing anything to help the people left stranded.

I got home at 0100. I do not understand why Scotland's Transport Minister, Mr Stevenson, is defending the contractors.

They were no where to be seen, even though eastbound of the M8 was cleared of traffic, there was 20cm of snow on the westbound lanes, and the hard shoulder was not cleared.

If cleared, the hard shoulder could have provided another lane to ease the traffic or be used by stranded cars.

Mr Stevenson is blaming the Met office for not giving enough warning about the bad weather, which is pathetic, they should have their own guys on the ground.

I spent almost nine hours getting home from a dentist appointment in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, on Monday.

I live in Lanark, which is in the south of Lanarkshire and the journey usually takes 35 minutes.

It took me four hours just to get to the M8.

The main problem was lorries - they were struggling to get up the hills and were getting stuck so cars behind couldn't get past.

One driver, so fed up with the traffic jam got out of his car and built a snowman while he waited.