Durham County Council is preparing to stockpile up to 12,500 tonnes of salt after investing £1.25m in two new salt barns.
The council has built two new salt barns in Wolsingham and Peterlee to increase capacity and ensure the council has adequate supplies of salt stock.
In addition to the new barns, the council also has 37 large power gritters, 33 trailer gritters and four snow blowers. There are 2,500 salt bins across the county, and more than 42,000 tonnes of salt is already stored in barns ready for use.
John Reed, head of technical services at Durham County Council, said: ‘By building two new storage facilities capable of holding thousands of tonnes of salt we aim to reassure residents that we understand how important this issue is to them.
‘We will also be targeting key routes throughout the county, as well as public transport networks, in order to minimise disruption as much as possible.’