Furious residents have called for an immediate inquiry into how councils handled arctic conditions that have frozen the county’s paths and roads.

Hundreds in Sussex have suffered broken bones from slips and falls and many more say they are trapped inside by treacherous conditions.

Some people in Brighton and Hove now claim to be running low on essential food items and medicines and have criticised Brighton and Hove City Council bosses for failing to grit ice-covered pavements or clear roads.

Managers at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath yesterday declared a major incident after dealing with 1,000 patients at its accident and emergency departments in a 48- hour period.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust bosses said pedestrians suffered broken wrists, ankles, arms, legs and hips.

At least 100 were still waiting for operations on Monday morning.

Some routine operations have been cancelled as hospital staff battle to clear the backlog.

The hospital’s last major incident was the fatal Lewes fireworks factory blaze in December 2006.

The snow and ice has continued to cripple transport services across Brighton and Hove, leaving some residents without a service for four days.

Commuters across Sussex faced chaos, with dozens of trains delayed and cancelled because of the icy conditions.

The annual Burning the Clocks ceremony also fell victim to the weather yesterday as organisers decided “adverse conditions” had made the event too dangerous.

Traders claim they are counting the cost of the cold snap after frozen paths stopped Christmas shoppers on what is traditionally their busiest weekend.

Sharon Thomas, chairwoman of the North Laine Traders Association, said gritters did not come to the area until Saturday evening.

Although gritters were working throughout yesterday, many residents joined businesses in branding the council’s actions too little, too late.

Peter Rose, of Shirley Drive, Hove, said an inquiry was needed. He added: “When all if this is over there should be some sort of independent inquiry into how the council has handled the whole situation and whether any lessons can be learned fromit so it does not happen again.”

Green Party convenor Bill Randall added: “I have been inundated with calls from older and disabled residents unable to get out of their front doors to get to the shops or the doctor’s surgery.”

But Brighton and Hove City Council defended its handling of the situation, saying it had done everything it possibly could.

The city’s cabinet member for the environment, Geoffrey Theobald, said gritters had been out in force.

He said: “We are sorry it has been so difficult for people, especially those in steep roads but we have done everything we possibly could.

“It was not physically possibly to cover every single road and pavement and so we had to make the best use of the resources we had.”

Councillor Theobald said it was difficult to justify using the budget to treble staff numbers and expanding resources in preparation for something that happened so rarely.

He said there were no plans for an inquiry but the council would be looking at how things operated over the weekend as a matter of routine.

John McQuater, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said councils had a obligation under the Highways Act 1980 to keep pavements and roads clear from snow and ice as far as reasonably practicable.

He said: “People who slip and fall and injure themselves may be able to sue for breach of statutory duty but they would need to prove that not enough reasonable action had been taken.

Emergency ambulance calls reporting falls almost doubled from Thursday to Sunday, compared with the same period the year before.

More than 2,500 calls were received across the four days this year, compared with about 1,300 in 2008.

Director of operations Sue Harris said: “Some staff offered their own 4x4 vehicles to respond to patients and often walked across snowy and icy terrain to reach those in need of medical attention.”

Helpful links

You can also find useful information in these places:

Our traffic news, including road disruption

Brighton and Hove Buses

National Rail Enquiries

The Met Office Severe Weather Warnings

We want your pictures and videos of the snow. Email picture.desk@theargus.co.uk, text them to 80360 using the word SUPIC, or upload them to this Flickr group, Sussex Snow December 2009