Councils running out of grit

Councils faced criticism for a failure to prevent disruption which stopped millions of people getting to work in recent days.

But the Local Government Association (LGA) denied accusations that authorities were cutting the number of roads they grit - and insisted no council was in real danger of running out.

The spokesman said: "Council supplies of grit have been massively depleted after the cold snap and heavy snow that has hit much of the east of the country.

"As of noon on Tuesday, stocks held by councils range from two weeks' worth to three days worth of grit if they were continuously gritting 24 hours a day. This is taking a worst case assumption that the weather forecasters have misjudged the conditions and that the weather reverts to being as bad as earlier in the week.

"This does not mean that councils will run out of grit as stocks are being replenished all the time. Grit stocks were depleted during the cold snap around the beginning of 2009 and councils had restocked storage warehouses to make sure that they could tackle further cold weather.

"Where stocks are running low, councils will work with each other to make sure that everyone has access to enough to keep battling the icy and snowy conditions. If that fails to deal with any issue, then councils will talk to the Highways Agency to look for further supplies."

Councils are responsible for nine out of every ten miles of road in the country. The Highways Agency is responsible for motorways and A roads, while Transport for London (TfL) is responsible for arterial trunk roads in the capital. Both TfL and the Highways Agency also insisted their stocks were in no danger of running out.

Meanwhile, Network Rail said most national train services were slowly returning to normal, with only Kent and Sussex still suffering major reductions in service.

Delays remained on 45% of services nationwide, but the company said it expected things to return to normal within the next two days.