1:38pm Saturday 9th January 2010
By James Nadal
SHARP sand is now being used to back up dwindling stocks of salt on some roads.
Buckinghamshire’s transport boss Cllr Val Letheren said the material has been collected from Holtspur gravel pits for use on secondary routes as grit is prioritised for the major roads.
Only restricted deliveries of grit have come into Amersham this week because the Government is now advising the prime supplier, Salt Union, where it can be sent at the moment.
More snow is forecast for tonight (see link, bottom of story).
Cllr Letheren, Buckinghamshire County Council’s cabinet member for transport, said it had received “hardly anything compared what we wanted to get” and said it was a “difficult situation”.
BCC had orders of grit due to arrive this week until the Government stepped in.
The council were down to about 6,600 tons - about a quarter of capacity - at the beginning of last week but would Cllr Letheren would not say how much is left now.
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However, she said by rationing the gritting it should be possible to last out the big freeze.
“Doing these as a very diminished route we should be able to last out the cold snap, we’re trying to,” she said.
“We’ve still got some left but what we are concerned about is because we’ve been careful and we did have a lot and we ordered as much as we could in the summer at the best price.
“We don’t want to be penalised where other councils or authorities have just been getting through theirs and run out so they get replenished.
“There’s a bit of an issue going on and we need more clarity from the government about how the salt cell is going to work.”
The Salt Cell – which is comprised of the Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat, DfT, Department for Communities and Local Government, Highways Agency and the Local Government Association - is assessing which areas of the country need salt the most and then making recommendations to suppliers.
Cllr Letheren said: “We are waiting to see how the government is going to let us have salt now they have put a hold on all the salt distributions.”
Some authorities have asked BCC to take some of their grit but it has only helped Milton Keynes, Cllr Letheren said.
She said Bucks was coping and had been better prepared than many other local authorities across the country.
Meanwhile, two gangs have cleared footways in the centre of High Wycombe while villages such as Amersham, Chesham, Little Chalfont, Iver, Chalfont St Peter, Burnham have helped BCC put grit on pavements, she said.
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