THE bill for gritting York's roads has rocketed by more than £180,000 over budget after an unexpectedly icy and snowy winter.

City of York Council says £333,000 was set aside last year to deal with maintenance work during the 2003/2004 winter.

But a report has revealed that gritters had to go out many more times than had been anticipated, and also had to use more salt than normal on a number of occasions because of exceptional cold. The total cost is now likely to come to £518,000.

Much of the extra money will have to come out of the contingency fund, but officers are recommending that more money should be set aside next year to cope with more gritting trips.

The report to the planning and transport advisory panel by finance manager Patrick Looker, says the current budget is sufficient to pay for an average of 50 gritting events, but it is thought that 2003/04 will have required gritters to go out 80 times, costing an additional £92,000.

He says more call-outs could still be needed if any late cold snaps occurred.

"Due to the nature of a number of the events, the amount spent per treatment is significantly greater than the contracted rate. This is because on very cold days / days with snowfall, the gritters will require to use additional salt in treating the road.

"In addition to this, where snow falls or there are a number of days where the temperature fails to rise to above zero degrees centigrade, it becomes necessary to take additional action in treating footpaths and cycleways. The additional cost due to the severity of the conditions totals £69,000."

He said there had also been increased costs for the council's weather forecasting contract (£9,000) and for servicing grit bins (£6,000.)

But he said there would be a small underspend in other areas of general maintenance because of the colder-than-average winter.

The report reveals that in several winters before 2001, the budget was underspent because of a series of mild winters.

Mr Looker recommends that the budget for next winter should be increased by £36,000, to cater for 60 gritting days.

Updated: 08:32 Friday, April 02, 2004