With the recent cold weather causing icy road surfaces, some residents in rural areas of Monmouthshire have expressed concern that a lot of country lanes and smaller roads are not being gritted.

This winter has seen a rise in frosty mornings, and has left many of the smaller rural routes around Monmouthshire with patches of black ice, some of which have resulted in car accidents.

One local man, Chris Jones from Tyla Farm, Govilon has raised his concerns at the lack of road gritting by the council as he says it has taken a dramatic drop in the past ten years.

Mr Jones said, "Many years ago the rural areas in the north of the county were left out, and when some local council members brought this to their attention we saw an improvement to our gritting services.

"However now this seems to have come to a stop, and many of the rural areas around Tyla Farm and Cwm Lane are left with black ice on them and we have seen road accidents this winter.

"Only this week, one driver wrote off his car after a crash caused by black ice, and I do think the council need to take note of this to make these roads safer."

After these concerns were raised with the council, gritters were sent down the road towards Tyla Farm, but similar concerns have been expressed regarding roads around the Clydach and Raglan areas and some residents fear that , the safety of the roads is taking a back seat in light of the council's budget restraints.

Monmouthshire County Council however, says it is achieving the statutory requirements for road gritting, and argues that it is doing all it can with limited resources.

A spokesman said the council has a dedicated winter service team that consists of around 30 frontline staff, which can be supplemented with a further 90 from within other departments and local contractors.

He said that members of the team are on call from October to April to tackle areas expected to be particularly icy and a danger to vehicles.

They also have constant routes which are gritted throughout these months, but also review these from time to time, such as when a school or hospital opens or closes.

In addition to this, the he said that a large area of the county was covered with 'pre-emptive gritting'.

"Our primary pre-salting roads extend to about 525 kilometres, which is approximately 33 per cent of our total network.

"We aim to pre-salt these routes when a forecast dictates within three hours. The forecast may require, as experienced in recent weeks, that the route is pre-salted a number of times in one day."

The council has also said that its salt stocks at the start of a season exceed the recommended level.

The spokesperson said, "In a mild winter we may use only 20 per cent of our stock but in contrast a cold winter would see us use almost the whole of our stock of over 9,000 tonnes. We hold salt in three local depots and each depot has its own dedicated lorries, equipment and spares to ensure that the service can be undertaken."

But what about those not on a pre-emptive route? What do those on rural routes not tackled by the team do when the icy weather hits?

The council spokesman said that those roads not on a pre-salting route are protected by over 1,000 salt bins.

"These provide a valuable aid for people who need to access the primary pre-salted routes from their homes. In a mild winter they may be filled once at the start of a season and again when requested. In a cold season bins may be refilled on a number of occasions involving a considerable amount of staff time."

This situation, while cost effective, has hit a nerve with some residents, such as Chris Jones, who feel it is unreasonable to expect residents to cover a half a mile stretch of a road.

"Living on the top of a hill, there are very few services we get from our council tax payments, including gritting and bin collection," he said. "With bin collection being reduced, we at least feel that gritting should be a priority enough.

"However we are grateful that the council acted quickly after our concerns were raised, and we hope to see this continue. There are a lot of rural roads within this county, and in the north of the county they are especially hilly, and we need this service to get around safely."