A TEES council has stocked double the amount of road salt it used last year as part of its winter preparations.

Last year Middlesbrough Borough Council used about 2,000 tonnes of road salt but this year has already stocked about 4,000 tonnes in storage barns in the Cargo Fleet Lane area.

The authority’s transport, environment and Streetscene teams are now receiving regular seasonal weather updates from the Meteo Group to monitor conditions.

Further stocks of road salt will be available from Boulby if required and the council has bought a new gritter to increased the fleet to five, with two spares on standby to cover breakdowns and maintenance or to provide additional cover in severe conditions.

Salt bins will once again be deployed to ensure major routes are kept clear, while extra resources will also be made available to ensure town centre roads and pavements remain safe and passable.

Middlesbrough has one of the fastest gritting times in the country, with the team able to cover roads on the borough’s five gritting routes – a total distance of 180 miles – in just two hours.

Councillor Tracy Harvey, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Environment, said: “It’s increasingly difficult to predict when the real cold snaps will come and how severe they will be, but as ever we are prepared for the worst.”

The authority’s online winter weather feature will return to the home page of the Middlesbrough Council website throughout the winter months. Log on to middlesbrough.gov.uk/winter or follow @MbroCouncil on Twitter.