MOTORISTS are being warned to take extra care this winter as it is feared cut-backs in road gritting could cause travel chaos.

Durham County Council is slashing £400,000 from the seasonal road budget which means fewer roads and footpaths will be salted during bad weather.

Minor routes, country roads and housing and industrial estates look likely to be the hardest hit but the authority says key routes will not suffer.

The move will reduce the number of roads salted from 50 percent to 39 percent - still above the government recommendation of 26 to 38 percent.

Environment and technical services director Chris Tunstall said: "Extra funding had to be found for key areas of social service provision, particularly services for children and older people, and with no other source of finance open to the authority, other areas of service provision have had to shoulder the burden."

Wear Valley District Council acts as contractors for the county council and grits roads on its instruction.

Its deputy leader Neil Stonehouse said: "Our members are not happy about this move, I'm sure there will be some problems.

"We have made representations but the decision is up to the county council but we don't expect them to change their minds."

Jeff Gale, acting secretary of Weardale Chamber of Trade, said: "We will have to see once the bad weather arrives exactly which roads this affects.

"But it could well hinder businesses on quiet roads as staff cannot travel to work, deliveries cannot arrive and people avoid using the roads to reach some business."

The independent councillor for Weardale, John Shuttleworth, warned that the move would increase hazards to drivers in the dale and other high areas near the North Pennines.

He said: "The safety of the motoring public should be the priority. That's what people pay their increasingly expensive council tax for."

Mr Tunstall added: "They have expressed concerns and we can understand that but the constraints on the council's overall budget left us little room for manoeuvre."

He said that known trouble spots are already provided with salts bins or heaps and more could be provided where roads meet necessary criteria.