A council which under-estimated the amount of pre-salting days needed for its winter season by almost 50% is to adjust its forecast.
Cumbria County Council was forced to spend an additional £1.2M because of the ‘exceptionally’ cold winter the region endured in 2005/06.
The gritters were sent out on 121 days, pushing the total cost for the season up to £3.9M. But the fact that this was 20 days higher than estimated in February led to opposition councillors claiming that contractor Amey was pre-salting more often than necessary in order to get more money out of the partnership.
The gritters were sent out 83 times the previous winter, and the cabinet agreed to a £2.7M budget to allow for 62 runs.
A spokeswoman for the Labour party said they had ‘many questions’, including whether the monitoring stations were sited in the best places. The matter would be investigated by the council’s environment scrutiny panel in the autumn. A spokesman for the council explained more salting took place simply because of the colder-than-average winter.
‘There was a 20% to 25% increase in the salt used on roads nationally, due to the higher-than-average number of marginal nights where the temperature dropped to around zero.
‘In the interests of safety, we have to err on the side of caution which means that in these marginal circumstances, the presumption is always to salt,’ he said.