Stranded mum-to-be criticises the lack of help

A heavily pregnant woman and her 13-month-old daughter were stranded for 12 hours when their car became stuck in snow.

Carla Holt claimed she received no support from the police overnight until the A3(M) at Petersfield in Hampshire was cleared enough for vehicles to move again at 6.30am.

The 23-year-old, who is eight months pregnant, was with her daughter, Lily-May, and her friend, Ricky Wells, as they were trying to get from near Heathrow Airport to Selsey, West Sussex.

They started their journey at 5.30pm yesterday and did not arrive until 8am today.

Ms Holt said: "We went through hell. It wasn't very nice, I didn't think we would get here.

"I am eight months pregnant, I couldn't go to the toilet all night, I couldn't warm the bottle up for my baby daughter. It was very frightening.

"There were loads of cars parked up, just on the motorway. No-one knew what was going on - there was no-one to help.

"We didn't see any police, we've heard that the Army is out but we didn't see anyone - it's not very good really."

Ms Holt's father, Mark, attempted to reach his daughter but was prevented from driving up the A3(M) because it had been closed because of the weather.

He said: "It took my daughter 15 hours to get home and no-one came to help her, they didn't see anyone."