According to the BBC, last year’s heavy winter has severely depleted supplies and means that some councils are having to borrow from others. The AA stated that it had been advised that local councils have approximately 250,000 tonnes less road salt in stock than they had ten years ago.
Icy roads are a major cause of road traffic accidents during the winter months and it is vital that councils are able to grit roads to limits skidding vehicles and people losing control. Criticism has been put to the council that they should have larger quantities of salt in reserve or they risk being vulnerable to the kind of chaos that was experienced on roads last year.
However, Councillor David Sparks of the Local Government Association hit back, claiming it was “ridiculous” for the AA to focus on salt reserves and accused them of scaremongering, adding that “It’s up to the Councils, not the AA, to decide whether it is a good use of taxpayers’ money to stockpile more salt or have other plans in place”.
Mr Sparks would however, be well advised to heed the warning. Last year there was a 25 % increase in hospital admissions, with numerous people injured as a result of slips or falls in addition to those who are injured due to losing control of vehicles. The Council need to take appropriate measures to deal with the risk of injury to road users and if they don’t see gritting as the way to do this then they need to find alternative measures.