ESSEX may run out of road gritting salt if this winter becomes as bad as last year.

Despite improvements to the quality of the salt and closer relationships with other authorities to improve gritting, another bad winter could make public highways dangerous for pedestrians, shoppers and drivers.

Figures in Essex County Council’s winter operational document for 2010/11 show Essex will have less than the minimum material recommended every week of the winter. Some depots do not have the capacity to store even the minimum.

These figures have been rejected as inaccurate by Patrick Gregory, winter engineer for Essex County Council.

But he did admit there could be problems if this winter is as bad as last year.

Mr Gregory said: “We had quite a run last year.

“We have two domestic suppliers who have not been able to get back to the same level of reserves.

“We are fully stocked and it should see us through a normal winter.

“But we may have to go out to the market to supply if there is a run.”

Norman Hume, councillor responsible for highways and transportation, agreed the council had only made provision for a normal winter and not for the sort of conditions seen in the past two years.

He said: “Clearly we have come through two particularly bad winters. There were salt supply problems and we were not exempt from that.

“We started with barns full to the brim, but the problem was re-supply.

“As a nation, we can’t put resources into a policy not required except in exceptional conditions. We must gear up appropriately and keep normal to above normal levels.

“In times of extreme weather if there are salt shortages and if we suffer, and we might, there is a back up plan to reduce to A and B roads.”

Last year, 25,000 tonnes of salt was used to grit the county’s roads.

A total of 14,000 tonnes had originally been planned for and the rest had to be rushed in. But a national problem with supply means there may not be the reserves available this time if we run out.

Mr Hume said: “There are not the reserves around the country that were available last year, but we have everything in stock we can.”

The average amount needed has been 12,000 tonnes, but this has been greatly exceeded in the past two years. More than double was used in Essex last year.

A number of other authorities are already looking abroad for extra salt, so any supplies left would go up in price and might not even be available.

Mr Hume agreed this was a concern and the council would have to consider building more salt barns and increasing the amount held if winters continued at the same level of severity.

He said: “If we see a serious winter like last year we will have to look again.

“We didn’t run out last year and had seven days left, but we got close on a couple of occasions and if we had had another two weeks of weather we would have been crippled.”

Essex County Council does not plan to salt residential or minor roads, but will concentrate on major routes, with local councils helping in town centres.

The county already has 65 gritters, salt barns at maximum and people on call, 24 hours a day , should bad weather strike.

Salt, which is 25 per cent more effective than last year, better arrangements and more people involved in helping to keep roads and paths safe, mean Essex County Council is ideally placed for an average year.

But if this year’s weather is similar to last winter supplies of salt will be exhausted and salt will have to be bought at vastly increased prices.