GRITTING supplies have been secured to cover Oxfordshire’s major routes for the next few days.

The current cold snap is expected to last well into next week.

Earlier this week, Oxfordshire County Council decided to reduce the proportion of roads it grits from 43 to 29 per cent.

This coincided with a dispute with rock salt supplier, Cheshire-based Salt Union, over deliveries, and the first lorry load of the year did not arrive until Thursday.

More supplies have now arrived at a depot in Drayton, near Abingdon, and the council says stocks should last for “some days ahead”.

The authority will continue to grit about one in three of the county’s roads.

Council spokesman Owen Morton said: “We’re now getting a trickle of deliveries of salt to our depot in Drayton.

“It’s good news that we’re getting some extra supplies, though they aren’t huge amounts and we are still very much planning with caution. We still have grit to cover some days ahead.

“Gritters covered 800 miles of priority roads on Thursday night and very limited areas on some other routes beyond that.

“Snowploughs continue to cover many routes all over the county – way beyond the 800-mile priority network.

“Oxfordshire County Council is urging motorists to take extra care on the roads following the recent heavy Snow and persistent icy conditions.”

Rock salt supplies have also been selling out at builders’ merchants across Oxford.

Dave Etheridge, the county council’s deputy chief fire officer, has advised drivers to only make journeys that are “absolutely necessary” and to make sure they are equipped with warm clothes, drinks, food, boots, a torch and a spade.

Staff at Oxford City Council’s parks department have been gritting the roads around cemeteries and paths leading up to graves in a bid to ensure funerals can still go ahead.