The city was ill-prepared for last month’s heavy snowfalls and the recovery was hampered by a lack of communication, an official report has found.

The assembly's transport committee looked at how London's agencies worked together.

From 2 February there was a lack of communication and support between emergency services, local councils and Transport for London, the London Assembly said.

TfL take the weight - six hours to inform mayor of bus suspension

It seems TfL will take the weight of the blame after the transport network periodically shut down.

The report highlighted how they waited six hours to tell the mayor that the bus network was being suspended.

There was further confusion as drivers scratched their heads over who was responsible for clearing snow from garage driveways.

TfL says it welcomed the report and would address the issues raised in it.

Commuters woke up on Monday morning to the heaviest snowfall in almost two decades.

The entire bus network was suspended with icy roads, closed schools, a crippled underground and rail service, and uncollected rubbish affecting the city for days.

However the report did note the under such "extreme" conditions, disruption to the transport network was "inevitable".

Agencies 'a little slow' - councils refused to clear roads for ambulances

The London Ambulance Service said it asked local authorities for help clearing access routes to ambulance stations but some councils refused.

A number of London boroughs said they received little or no communication from TfL and as a result attempts to grit or salt roads were uncoordinated or too late.

LA committee chair Val Shawcross said:

"Despite the weather forecasts, the response by key agencies in London was a little slow to get off the ground.

"While some disruption was inevitable, the evidence we heard suggests a lack of preparation and co-ordination delayed the capital's recovery."

"It is reasonable to question whether the mayor could have been given the opportunity to be involved at an earlier stage in coordinating the response to what was the most severe disruption to the capital's transport network in decades," the report said.

It called for further examination of TfL's contingency plans and emergency procedures.

Tfl - "lessons to be learned" - transport commissioner apologises

TfL said:

"We have always acknowledged that there are lessons to be learned by us and our borough partners and it is a highly valuable contribution to that process.

"We will address all of the points raised as part of our lessons learned exercise and will publish our full response to each in due course."

A spokesman for London Mayor Boris Johnson said:

"The report recognises that when rare and extreme conditions occur then severe disruption is inevitable.

"We accept there is scope for better coordination between TfL, the emergency services and the London boroughs and will consider all recommendations on how to improve this."

Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy also said the impression may have been given in the media that TfL held the boroughs responsible for the suspension of bus services.

He told the committee:

"If any of my people said: 'It's the boroughs' fault,' then I apologise for that because I do not think it is."