Finally, there is some good news over hard-pressed road salt supplies after the ship finally came in. West Sussex CC and its contractor May Gurney chartered a boat to bring back around 1,560 tonnes of salt from Hamburg, Germany. Cllr Derek Whittington, cabinet member for strategic planning and transport at West Sussex CC, said: ‘I'm full of admiration for the way the West Sussex Highways team has responded by keeping our entire network open and safe.' Elsewhere, council bosses are totting up the cost, and the lessons learned from the harshest snowstorm in 18 years, which brought many parts of the country to a standstill. Bills have been flooding into town halls for the cost of bringing in extra salt, paying staff overtime and major road repairs owing to the extreme cold. Harrow LBC is expecting to pay £500,000 across the borough in road damage. A survey has revealed 30 Scottish councils have spent more than £46m so far this winter on keeping roads clear, compared with £43.1m for the whole of last winter. A COSLA spokesman said: ‘Scotland has greater experience of dealing with extreme and unexpected weather than the rest of the UK, but we have still been put under pressure.'
