COUNCIL bosses today admitted some main roads had not been gritted before Monday's snowstorm which left Blackburn and Darwen gridlocked for hours.

And they admitted even the ones which had been treated weren't much safer as drivers were travelling too slowly to spread the salt!

Today, councillors called for an inquiry, claiming Blackburn with Darwen Council had been caught short twice in just 14 months.

Thousands of drivers battled for up to four hours to escape Blackburn on Monday night after snow fell at 2pm and turned into ice. A report to councillors sent out by the council's director of direct services, Peter Hunt, reported a weather forecast sent to the council indicated snow first on high ground, spreading to other areas after 6pm.

Initially, Blackburn with Darwen sent out gritters to high areas and then began gritting priority routes, such as main roads. Lancashire County Council, which grits roads in non-unitary areas, received the same weather report but put out gritters on priority routes and danger-spots in high areas.

When snow fell earlier than expected roads clogged up with rush hour Traffic and gritting lorries became stuck in traffic.

The situation mirrored problems experienced in Blackburn in December 2001 when the a weather warning wrongly predicted the time of snow.

Today, Coun Paul Browne, leader of the Lib Dems, said: "It's ridiculous. If a report comes in warning of snow you should get the gritters out straight away." Conservative councillor Michael Lee said: "The council should have done better. As soon as it snows Blackburn grinds to a halt even when the rest of the county keeps moving."

Mr Hunt said: "Gritting was effective until around 5.15pm when traffic became gridlocked. The gritters were in the middle of their principal routes and some roads would not have had treatment at that time.

"For grit to work effectively, it needs to be dispersed by freely moving traffic and in some cases that did not happen. Gritters got stuck in traffic. Traffic eased around 7.30pm and gritting could continue relatively trouble free."

Executive member for regeneration, Coun Andy Kay, said yesterday he was confident that the council had done all it could.

Ian Hornby, head of maintenance at Lancashire County Council, said: "We dispatched a fleet of gritting vehicles across East Lancashire yesterday and they treated both rural and urban areas.

"The fact police directed traffic off the M65 on to county roads shows our roads were passable."

Opinion divided on snow action

OPINION is divided on what can be done to keep the roads open when it snows.

For councils, the problem is the type of snow Lancashire gets.

"It's easy to say that people cope fine in Norway when they get months of snow," said Ian Hornby, head of maintenance at Lancashire County Council. "But there it will drop below freezing for months at a time.

"That means they can use a snowplough to clear the roads and, unless they have a blizzard, it is passable. Effectively, their snow melts once, ours melts and can re-freeze on several occasions as temperatures change. This gives us a tight window to get out and grit before it turns into ice, and the circumstances then have to be right.

"Traffic needs to keep moving at a decent speed to spread out salt, but at the same time we can only use a certain amount on the roads because it's not environmentally friendly. If it gets too cold the salt doesn't work."

However, Edmund King, who has studied different forms of winter maintenance for the RAC Foundation, said: "We've had severe weather warnings for five days and the council should have been out gritting all the time.

"They need to look to see how other countries work. A few centimetres of snow shouldn't bring the country to a standstill.

"Often, it is a case of management, not more money."