A FRESH supply of rock salt arrived tonight to keep Oxfordshire’s roads gritted as the winter freeze continued.

The 40-tonne load arrived after the county council criticised its supplier, Salt Union, of Winsford, in Cheshire, for failing to deliver any rock salt so far this year.

Council spokesman Paul Smith said: “We’ve received our first lorry load of salt since December.

“That amounts to only a very small amount of salt in terms of tonnage, but this is an indication that Oxfordshire is now on a national priority list and means we can expect more salt.

“The arrival time of the salt is, however, an inexact science, given that there is a two-mile queue of lorries outside Salt Union’s mine in Cheshire.”

The council is trying to conserve its salt stocks and has cut the proportion of roads it treats with salt, with 800 miles of ‘priority one’ routes being listed for gritting at present.

However, highways teams and contractors are working to plough snow off many other roads around the county.

The Department for Transport said it was monitoring which UK councils needed salt the most, to ensure areas in most need got priority for supplies.