BOLTON Council is to consider introducing a more flexible response to winter gritting following the poor state of some roads over the Christmas holidays.

But Cllr Peter Johnson, chairman of the winter maintenance scrutiny committee, warned that the council cannot give 100 per cent guarantees that the conditions experienced by motorists two months ago will not recur.

"Is there a point when we have got to accept that under certain circumstances road conditions are less than ideal and motorists will have to address their driving habits accordingly?" he said.

Councillors were told that several years ago, before guidelines about the quantity of salt to lay down were introduced, gritters in the borough would, in extreme conditions, blanket the roads with around four times the amount of salt currently laid.

But officers stressed that this had environmental implications -- damaging plant life next to the carriageway and washing salt into water courses, affecting fish life, as well as corroding vehicles using the roads.

Councillors were told that if that amount of salt had been laid on the roads in Bolton at Christmas it may have had a slight impact on the compacted ice on some roads but would not have solved the problem.

Temperatures on the carriageways dipped as low as -9C and remained below freezing for several days.

One of the main problems in responding to the worsening weather conditions was that the forecasts received by the council cover the entire borough but the North and East of Bolton was harder hit by the snow and ice than elsewhere on that occasion.

The local authority also has two weather stations situated on St Peters Way and Dicconson Lane and councillors discussed the possibility of increasing this number to give a more accurate picture of weather conditions in the borough.

At present, gritters have 10 routes to cover around the borough in a bid to prevent roads freezing, with a smaller number of priority roads to concentrate on during heavy snowfalls.

Officials will now also consider introducing a more responsive intermediate system of routes to ensure the worst-hit roads are dealt with more intensively.

The scrutiny committee will consider proposals at its next meeting on March 15.