Gritters turned out nearly twice as often onto the streets of Shropshire last winter as severe weather and a national salt shortage led to more call outs and a £250,000 overspend.

The problem was compounded by last September’s flooding, which hit homes around the county. Shropshire Council has now reported that the eather led to a bill for £2,060,000.

A report to the authority shows that in the third quarter of last year the council used the same amount of salt they would normally get through in a year.

The figure was revealed in the revenue outturn report, due to go before cabinet today.

The report compiled by Laura Rowley, council resources director, states: “The severity of the winter weather during 2008 to 2009 has resulted in a significant overspend within the winter service.

“The severity of the winter weather continued throughout January and February including several significant snowfalls and this has caused the budget to be significantly overspent,” it adds.

The bill includes £1,515,000 for repairs to county roads and bridges from flooding.

The money is now being carried forward from last year to this year and next as the council attempts to recoup some of the costs from last year’s floods by applying for financial assistance of £689,000 through the Bellwin Scheme of Emergency Financial Assistance.

Chris Edwards, Shropshire Council’s assistant director for environmental maintenance, said: “The overspend in our highways maintenance budget is a result from the serious weather we have faced over the last year.

“This included the severe flooding on September 5, 2008 which affected many communities in Shropshire.” he added.

“The prolonged hard winter also meant additional spending as we turned out 93 times over the 2008 to 2009 winter to treat Shropshire’s roads in comparison to our normal average turn out of 50 times.

“The national shortage of salt also meant we incurred greater costs in procuring salt.”

By Emma Kasprzak