GRITTERS FAILED to treat main roads in Shropshire the night before widespread icy conditions brought chaos to parts of the county, it emerged today.

Shropshire Council only started gritting main roads like the A53 and A49 early yesterday morning, just as thousands of drivers were caught up in rush-hour chaos when freezing rain brought black ice to the network.

Shirehall officials said they hoped grit which was put down on Saturday and Sunday night would still have done the job yesterday morning.

Gritters did not go out in north Shropshire until about 6.30am.

There were dozens of crashes because of black ice, which forced the closure of main roads including the A53 and A49.

North Shropshire was worst hit with main roads gridlocked and the A53 in Shawbury was closed due to accidents.

Police deemed the road was unsafe because of ice and closed it between Shawbury and the Hodnet bypass until about 10.30am.

Police took about 50 crash calls across the county in just two hours, and the ambulance service took nearly 150 calls relating to the icy conditions.

Shropshire Council today admitted it had not gritted the roads overnight from Monday to Tuesday in parts of north Shropshire.

Chris Edwards, Shropshire Council’s assistant director for environmental maintenance, said: “We gritted the roads in the north of the county on Saturday and Sunday night. Salt was still on the roads and therefore working on Monday night as we’d had no rain.

“We gritted the roads again at 6.30am yesterday morning as rain had frozen on top of the salt making driving conditions extremely treacherous.”

David Collier, NFU regional director for the West Midlands, posted his experience on Twitter.

He wrote: “I gather that none (gritters) left the Hodnet depot for some reason.

“It’s certainly grim out there – lots of upside-down cars in the Newport area, and roads extremely slippery.”

Elsewhere, there were accidents and treacherous icy conditions on the B5476 in Tilstock, the A525 in Whitchurch, the A49 in Grinshill and A528 in Albrighton, near Shrewsbury.

By Tom Johannsen