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What's the story?

Britain ground to a halt in January as heavy snow battered the country and local authorities were forced to restrict gritting to the main roads after supplies ran to desperately low levels.

Were the councils incompetent?

That's a bit harsh. The Met Office originally predicted there was only a one in seven chance of a cold winter, although I admit they're the same people who forecast a barbecue summer last year. The BBC is reportedly considering firing them.

So, councils should have ignored the Met.

Well, councils did up their grit orders after last February's bad weather caught them off guard. The government recommends they have enough grit to last six days of cold weather, but both the cost of grit (currently £25 per tonne) and storage costs need to be factored in. The bad weather lasted more than three weeks in some areas.

But still - I never saw a gritter!

You were unlucky. Council gritters treated more than 1.7 million miles of road in three weeks, the equivalent of travelling around the world 68 times (but only staying in the cold parts). They spread more than 200,000 tonnes of salt - roughly the weight of 1,100 blue whales. Some councils even tweeted the location of their gritters.

How does grit work?

It is actually rock salt. It lowers the freezing point of the snow on the road, and helps it thaw. But salt is hygroscopic [it attracts moisture] and only really works when it is driven over and ground down and mixes with the moisture around and becomes brine.

Where does it come from?

Most of it comes from Winsford Salt Union in Cheshire, which pumps out 30,000 tonnes of salt rock a week at full capacity. The mine is so big that, during the Second World War, it was used to store national treasures. Today, its holdings are priceless.

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