SALT stocks to treat the roads during the cold snap are beginning to run “worryingly low” across Lancashire.

The wintry weather which has blighted the county and the rest of the country since Sunday has left national suppliers struggling to replenish councils' stocks.

Lancashire County Council said dwindling supplies had forced its usual salt reserve to just 40 per cent of capacity.

Now just priority routes are being gritted, but not secondary roads.

Opoosition councillors said people could be left risking “life and limb” on untreated roads.

Council bosses in Blackburn with Darwen said the borough was in a better situation than Lancashire, with supplies holding up.

County council chiefs said they and other councils across the country were facing worrying times.

Rob Clifford, the county’s director of highways and environmental management, said: “It’s difficult everywhere. We want people to be able to get out and about.

“It’s a very challenging time because we don’t get winters like this very often.

“We have just had a delivery of 300 tonnes but that’s not enough to replace the reserves.

“The deliveries we are getting in are being used.

“We have enough for this week but I have to keep one eye on the next week and the week after.

“The problem is getting hold of salt stock. The mine where we get our salt from in Cheshire is working every day to get enough salt.

"We have enough to salt to grit our priority routes but not our secondary at the moment and the forecast isn’t getting any better.”

County Coun David Whipp, who has criticised the gritting operation in his home borough of Pendle, claimed there had been a ‘sense of complacency’ by the county.

He said: ““When I get up in the morning I don’t know whether to dress up in skies, ice skates or clamps.

“The people on the ground are working as hard as they can but they are hamstrung by a lack of resources from county hall.”

Peter Hunt, director of regeneration and environment at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "For pre-frost treatment, we would normally use about 30 tonnes for our eight routes and for snow about 120 tonnes.

"We have sufficient salt at present and have a further 1,000 tonnes on order.”

Severe weather warnings were being issued today, with snow being predicted in parts of Lancashire over the next few days by the Met office forecasters.