More than 70 per cent of Oxfordshire’s roads will not be gritted this weekend despite freezing conditions, as the county council tries to conserve depleted salt supplies to treat key routes.

The council, which is responsible for the upkeep of all but the A34 and M40, will still treat all major routes and A roads, but has admitted it will cut back on some B roads.

'Making cutbacks now will mean priority routes are still salted during the continuing cold and snowy weather'

County council spokesmanIt comes despite forecasts of cold temperatures over the next few days – with more snow predicted to arrive tomorrow evening.

Until yesterday, 1,200 miles – or 43 per cent – of the county’s roads had been gritted daily during the cold snap, but the figure has fallen to just over 800 miles, or 29 per cent.

A county council spokesman said: “The stock is not exhausted and making cutbacks now will mean priority routes are still salted during the continuing cold and snowy weather.

“Similar arrangements have been put in place by other councils during the past week in response to a national shortage of road salt.

“Oxfordshire is one of the last areas to make this move. More salt has been ordered and delivery will help alleviate the current situation.

“Within Oxfordshire the salted road network has been six per cent higher than the average for other counties in the South East.

“Many counties have run low on salt much sooner than Oxfordshire and have scaled their operations back much sooner and much further.”

A Highways Agency spokesman said the agency had sufficient salt stock levels to “meet our requirements during the current conditions”, adding: “We have contingency plans to monitor and replenish stocks when severe weather arrives and, where required, we are receiving deliveries of salt to our depots across our strategic road network.

"Normally, our service providers are required to hold salt stocks to cover six days of continuous treatment.

“In the light of the need to consider additional mutual aid support to local authorities, we have reduced this to five days.”

The county council said it would continue to use snowploughs on as many of Oxfordshire’s roads as it could reach, regardless of which roads were being gritted.

Ian Hudspeth, the council’s cabinet member for transport, said: “Good management of stock levels has meant people in Oxfordshire have received a far better level of service for far longer than most other snow-affected areas.

“Orders have been placed and we await delivery.

“We will reassess our situation as we go along, based on the amount of salt that is being delivered to our depots.”