Snow arrives but where is the grit?
As the first snows of the winter sweep across the UK some councils say they are still waiting for supplies of grit.
A survey from the Local Government Association (LGA) found that local authorities have ordered more than a million tonnes of extra salt this year to combat the snow, a third more than they did for last winter.
And despite the deep cuts facing councils as a result of the spending review, gritting budgets do not seem to be being hit. Durham County Council told Channel 4 News it has added an extra quarter of a million pounds to its gritting budget and Surrey Council has invested an extra million pounds.
Delivery delay
After last year’s grit shortages, councils say they have been making preparations for wintry conditions since October. But they say that some authorities are still waiting for deliveries.
Cllr Peter Box, Chairman of the economy and transport board at the LGA said: “There will be no room for complacency in the weeks ahead. The fact that many councils are still waiting for salt to be delivered at this late stage is undoubtedly going to make a challenging time of year even more difficult.
“While this is not ideal, councils have responded by setting up arrangements with neighbouring areas to share supplies. A few have had to look overseas to get their salt.”
Grit delays ‘astonishing’
But motoring organisation the AA has expressed concern that councils may not have learned lessons from previous years where salt shortages caused mayhem on roads around the country.
AA President Edmund King told Channel 4 News: “There have been various reports written which say that the UK doesn’t have enough domestic rock salt capacity and which have advised councils to order in advance.
“If it is the case that some councils are still waiting for supplies, I think it is astonishing and a worrying situation for the months ahead.”
The AA says that for a standard winter, the UK needs 3.3m tonnes of grit and that domestic suppliers can only provide 2.4m tonnes of that. The remainder has to be brought in from overseas, from countries like Egypt and, it is rumoured, even Australia.
The organisation said the reason there were problems with supplies last winter was because councils had not planned sufficiently and were unable to secure additional supplies of rock salt in a short space of time.
Smaller distributors who sell rock salt to schools and hospitals say they are surprised by the councils’ claims of delivery delays. One North Wales-based company told Channel 4 News they have struggled to obtain rock salt because councils have been stockpiling it “for months”.