Highways bosses have set aside £3.4 million to keep roads in Herts clear this winter.
The county has a total salt storage capacity of 12,500 tonnes, which will last for 65 days under normal use, 20 days under heavy use and eight days of continuous heavy snowfall.
Sixty gritting vehicles are available and there are 1,000 salt bins across the county.
A report to Herts County Council’s highways and transport cabinet panel notes it takes 70 tonnes of salt and around two weeks to refill the bins but last year ‘disappointingly many bins were emptied by salt being taken for private use’.
Over the past 15 years the average number of salting runs per winter has been 43, though last year there were 50. During the severe winter of 2009 there were 78 salting trips.
On each run 2,500km of roads are salted along with 51km of cycle paths.
The A41 in Dacorum has been identified as ‘the county’s most difficult A-road in winter conditions’.
The report adds that the public resist clearing snow because of unfounded fears about legal liability.