Highways chiefs are facing a bill of more than £100,000 for the damage the long winter has caused to Shropshire’s road network.

It will be some weeks before the total cost of repairing potholes and cracks to road surfaces becomes known.

But it will certainly be at least £100,000 across the county council area, and possibly a lot more.

The authority yesterday took delivery of more salt to keep stocks topped up and ready should the icy weather make a comeback.

“We were getting a bit tight on salt but were still comfortable,” said divisional surveyor Peter Lloyd.

The county council and Telford & Wrekin Council joined forces earlier in the month to deal with the national shortage of salt. 

Over a couple of days, Telford & Wrekin decided to limit the amount of gritting taking place to cover A and B roads, roads serving emergency service sites, and main bus routes. 

And in order to ensure that the supply of rock salt lasted until new stocks were delivered, the county council concentrated resources on treating the “defined” network of A and B roads and a few high risk sites. 

Mr Lloyd said the full extent of winter damage would become known over the coming weeks.

“We always get more potholes at the end of any winter. But winter started back in October and so we are going to get more potholes than normal,” he said.

“Generally the roads appear to have to stood up to the winter weather quite well but we are starting to see some defects.”

Mr Lloyd said the council planned its winter maintenance programme during the summer, covering such things as the number of gritters, salt levels and training for contractors and snow plough operators.

By Dave Morris