Warning over Shropshire grit supplies

Gritting salt is to be diluted in a desperate attempt to eke out supplies as the Arctic conditions maintain their stranglehold on Shropshire, it was revealed today.

Telford & Wrekin Council will next week begin watering down its salt stock with grit to make it go further, despite having bolstered stocks by 60 per cent on last year.

Shropshire Council said it had no plans to follow suit as it currently had sufficient supplies of salt but Powys County Council said it would consider diluting stocks once its salt levels got down to 3,000 tonnes and the number of roads gritted would be reduced at 5,000 tonnes.

News of the action comes after RAF Shawbury recorded a low of -10C (14F) overnight but the mercury sank to -13C (9F) in more remote parts of the county.

Forecasters have predicted more of the same for the county tonight, with an average low of -8C (18F) on the cards, and tomorrow will be a repeat although by Saturday temperatures are set to rise as high as 7C (41F), with rain sweeping in from Friday.

Salt supplies in Telford & Wrekin were at a maximum at the beginning of last month but the authority said its gritters had been out 33 times since November 9 and since November 23 had been gritting twice a day, every day.

The council is now warning drivers to take extra care because the mixture that will be used on the main routes from Tuesday may not react as quickly on snow or ice.

Councillor Adrian Lawrence, council cabinet member for the environment, said: "We have taken this decision looking at longer range forecasts of continuing freezing temperatures and because we cannot be absolutely confident of obtaining replacement salt supplies we have on order."

The council said it had so far used 1,600 tonnes of the 2,700 tonnes it had when stocks were full in early October.

Powys County Council said it would not be diluting its salt at present but said if stocks went below 3,000 tonnes it would consider the use of additives.

Simon Alton, spokesman for Shropshire Council, said the authority had not used any grit at all by this time last year, with trucks not going out until December 12.

Meanwhile, a driver escaping uninjured when a Powys County Council snow plough overturned in Forden, near Welshpool, yesterday.

And Severn Trent Water was this morning repairing a burst water pipe in Minsterley, near Shrewsbury, along the A488. The leak was said to be freezing as soon as it hit the road.

One Telford & Wrekin Council bin lorry also needed to be rescued from an icy estate road by a JCB digger.

The RAC yesterday reported 3,500 calls for assistance every hour at one point, the busiest since the cold spell began.

The busiest areas were Scotland and the whole of the North, down to the East Midlands and Kent.

Scotland's Transport Minister apologised today after hundreds of motorists were stranded in their cars overnight, following heavy snow and freezing temperatures which brought main routes to a standstill.

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson conceded that the weather advice the authorities had been working on yesterday "did not meet the requirements"

And he warned it may take some time before the roads were "back to anything approaching normal".

Some travellers were stuck in their vehicles for more than 15 hours.