Salt stocks 'must be large enough for a winter as cold as last year'

The Government should import 250,000 tonnes of road salt to deal with a winter as bad as last year's, a Whitehall-commissioned report said today.

The salt would be stored and managed by the Highways Agency to be made available to local highway authorities - at a premium price to reflect the costs of importing and storing it and to provide an incentive to authorities to build up their own stocks.

The interim report, covering England, came from a three-man winter resilience review panel set up earlier this year by former transport secretary Lord Adonis following the worst winter weather for 30 years.

RAC Foundation chief David Quarmby, who chaired the panel, said today: "We can't know when such a severe winter will hit us again, but we can take steps as a nation to ensure that, when it does, we will cope better."

The panel also recommended official guidance on snow and ice clearing to avoid negligence claims.