MOTORISTS heading out for the big Christmas getaway are being warned to take care during the big chill.

Icy conditions caused chaos yesterday across Merseyside and caused delays at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport.

Merseyside Police responded to several incidents on the M62 and the M53 in Wirral between Junctions 1 and 2, which suffered severe delays due to sheet ice.

Earlier in the day, part of the M58 was closed in Maghull after a car collided with a barrier after losing control on the ice. Inspector David Corcoran, from the North West Motorway Police Group (NWMPG), said: “The whole of the motorway network across Merseyside is experiencing severe problems due to the extremely cold weather, and as a result we have been busy dealing with a large number of collisions .

“Thankfully, no-one has been severely injured, but there is still sheet ice on a lot of our roads, which is often not visible to drivers, so I would urge people to drive a lot more carefully today.”

Breakdown services have also been stretched to capacity, with the RAC recording more than 2,500 breakdown calls across the North-West in the past two days – an increase of 28%.

The roads have been getting busier with the motorway network, including the M6 in Cheshire and the M62, seeing large volumes of traffic as people travel for Christmas.

NW train services were generally said to be running as normal.