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Big freeze puts squeeze on budget
KEEPING Derbyshire's roads free from ice and snow this winter has blown the county council's gritting budget by more than £2m.
The prolonged cold weather has meant that roads have had to be gritted more often than expected in order to keep the highways safe for traffic.
Meanwhile the extra demand for salt across Britain has forced Derbyshire County Council to pay more for the salt needed to keep its supplies at the levels required to keep main roads ice-free.
A report received by the council's cabinet members this week has revealed that as a result, the Environmental Services department has overspent its budget of 3.17m by approximately 2m.
And the overspend – coupled with increases in energy prices – means that council chiefs are being forced to make savings in other areas.
The council has announced that it plans to reduce its budget for patching and repairing roads as it counts the cost of the cold winter.
A spokesman for Derbyshire County council said: "Gritting our roads cost more than expected this year because bad weather meant we had to grit more than we would usually expect."
He added: "The additional cost is being contained by reducing funding allocated to other budgets for road repairs, projects and improvements."
Environment bosses have reported that the gritting teams were sent out to salt the roads 118 times up to February 10, compared with an anticipated 84 turnouts during the course of an average year.
Gritting the county's road network costs around 30,000 every time.
The salt shortage experienced around the country resulted in the Government effectively controlling deliveries, forcing the council to turn to other highways authorities and commercial suppliers in an effort to secure the salt supplies it needed.
Council chiefs had to pay up to 60 a tonne for this salt compared to a normal price of 25 per tonne.
The short supplies resulted in roads not on the precautionary salting network – which includes around half of the county's roads – only being treated on an emergency basis, while the refilling of salt bins was also postponed.
The report states that securing adequate salt supplies still remains a priority for the county council.
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Weather for Chesterfield
Friday 25 May 2012
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