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NORTH Lanarkshire Council is running out of salt to treat Monklands roads.

And now only main routes will be salted.

The council has this week announced emergency measures designed to tackle a shortage of salt used for treating road surfaces.

A national shortage is affecting the council’s supply because Salt Cell, an emergency unit set up by the UK government, is now co-ordinating the supply to all local authorities in the UK.

That means expected deliveries to North Lanarkshire, based on orders that were already placed, have not arrived and the council has been advised that future deliveries are also likely to be affected.

Amey Roads North Lanarkshire, which procures salt on behalf of the council, reports to Salt Cell every day to advise on the status of the area’s stock. Salt Cell then uses that information, and similar information received from all other local authorities, to supply salt based on levels of need.

North Lanarkshire has at present (date of issue) 2600 tonnes of coarse salt, compared to its usual stock level of 6000 tonnes.

The authority has advised the Government that this is sufficient for 3.4 days of snow or 10.2 days of frost - if only primary routes are treated.

Primary routes are defined in the council’s winter maintenance policy as A and B class roads; main distributor roads; main roads in the vicinity of schools; access routes to hospitals; ambulance depots; main police stations and fire stations and main bus routes, as well as other main roads with a gradient steeper than 1 in 10.

“We can’t be sure how long this situation will last,but the current forecast is that the weather will remain cold until at least the beginning of March,” said Graham Mackay, head of Roads and Transportation with North Lanarkshire Council.

“The council is doing everything it can to ensure current stock levels last as long as possible and to prepare contingencies to help cope with the shortage.

“For example, we have been advised that our salt supplier has switched to the production of fine salt, rather than the coarse salt we normally use. As a result, we have our transport service on standby to recalibrate gritters to use this fine salt as soon as it is received.

“In the meantime, however, we must conserve salt supplies as long as possible. We will therefore be restricting salting to primary routes, unless the situation on secondary routes presents a real danger to life or limb.”

Councillor Mark Griffin, vice-convener of Planning and Transportation Services with North Lanarkshire Council, added: “We would urge anyone using the roads in North Lanarkshire to bear in mind the current situation and to be extremely careful when driving on secondary roads during the current cold spell. Our full winter maintenance policy can be found on the council’s website at www.northlan.gov.uk; and more information is available from Northline, our customer contact centre, on 01698 403110.”