Dozens of gritters will focus on main roads tonight as Shropshire faces its worst snowfall of the winter so far.

Forecasters have warned that heavy snowfall, snowdrifts and freezing temperatures were due to continue to cause chaos across the county tonight.

From today, emergency services and Telford & Wrekin Council have jointly agreed to reduce the road and footpath gritting network to preserve salt stocks.

• To see the gritting maps click on the links below

The authority will now only routinely grit A and B roads, one primary router into each of the borough’s district centres and accesses to ambulance, fire and police stations. 

The council, together with representatives from ambulance, fire and police services, has decided to do this as it now has only 160 tonnes of rock salt left. 

With the winter cold snap expected to last until the weekend, the revised gritting policy will see this supply last until Friday by when it hopes to secure further supplies.

Paul Smart, Shropshire County Council’s program and contracts manager, said the authority had enough supplies to cope but would also be focusing on main roads and “high risk” sites.

He said: “We have approximately 2,000 tonnes of rock salt left, which we would like to assure members of the public is a sufficient amount to allow us to continue treating Shropshire’s main roads over the next week.

“Our gritters will be out tonight to treat all main roads across Shropshire and a selected number of high risk sites.

“In line with central Government policy to deal with the current national shortage of rock salt, we have shared our salt with other authorities who have significantly lower stocks.

“In order to ensure that the supply of rock salt lasts until the new stocks are delivered, we will concentrate our resources on treating the ‘defined’ network in line with our winter maintenance policy.

“This network consists of ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads and a few of the high risk sites. Problem areas on other minor roads will be treated as resources allow.”

And roads in Powys will continue to be gritted despite stocks of salt running low.

Powys County Council says it has enough salt left to last until the end of the week.

The council, which is responsible for 5,472 kilometres of road in the county, says it will continue to grit all major trunk roads and the level of service provided will not be affected.

By Rhea Parsons