As snow returns, there are concerns for gritting stocks in part of the region.

A CLAIM that the Government is secretly “stealing”

salt from part of the region – forcing council chiefs to buy from abroad – has been denied.

MPs from across County Durham tabled a parliamentary motion to protest that ministers were “putting pressure on salt mines and suppliers”

to withhold supplies and send salt elsewhere in the country.

They claimed Durham County Council was unable to obtain salt from Boulby Potash Mine, in Loftus, east Cleveland, even though a deal had been “properly negotiated and ordered”.

As a result, the council has been forced to look overseas – and pay soaring costs. The price is believed to have risen by 70 per cent since Christmas.

Following the heavy snowfall in November, the council was left with only enough salt to grit its roads for three days, despite bolstering its reserves before the winter began.

But the Department for Transport (DfT) poured scorn on the claim, insisting there had been no meetings with salt mines to discuss supplies because – unlike last winter – there was no shortage.

A spokesman said: “It is not true the department is advising salt mines on where priority deliveries should be made, nor have we redirected or stopped any salt deliveries ordered by local highway authorities.

“It’s obviously for each individual local highway authority to set its own winter service plan and to ensure it has the resources to deliver it, including sufficient salt supplies.

“However, as a precautionary measure, a limited supply of salt from the national strategic stockpile has been made available to local authorities who are most in need.”

The claim that salt was being moved by stealth was made by six MPs – Pat Glass (Durham North-West), Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham), Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland), Phil Wilson (Sedgefield), Kevan Jones (Durham North) and Grahame Morris (Easington).

Their motion demanded that the DfT publish details of the meetings of Saltcell – the ad hoc forum of Government officials, local council leaders and salt suppliers which the DfT insisted has not met.

In a letter Ms Glass sent to Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, the MP wrote: “The county has taken all reasonable precautions against another harsh winter and could not have done more to prepare.

“Yet, despite this careful planning, it finds itself with only three days of salt left because of actions taken by the Department for Transport to ‘persuade’ the salt mines and suppliers to prioritise salt to other local authorities – while repeatedly denying that this ‘persuasion’ is happening.

“The county has been forced to look abroad to source salt, but is now having to spend £75 per tonne, despite having a contract with a local salt mine to provide at £25 per tonne.”