Motorists driving in freezing conditions are entering a safety lottery because councils will not set targets for gritting icy roads.

East Sussex County Council was among eight of 34 local authorities which did not respond to a survey to show the proportion of roads it salted in dangerous weather conditions.

Research by the RAC Foundation, the campaigning arm of the RAC, showed gritting standards varied considerably across England.

The foundation has called on the Government to amend the law to ensure local authorities keep roads ice-free during bad weather and carried out the survey to back its campaign.

It asked counties how many roads would be salted and discovered the proportion varied between 16 per cent (Cornwall) and 80 per cent (Devon).

The county council did not respond even though it was involved in a test case which sparked the initial campaign for tougher policies on gritting roads.

Concerns about gritting levels were first raised following a House of Lords ruling local authorities could not be held legally liable for failing to grit roads.

This followed the case of Geoffrey Goodes, from Eastbourne, who was almost paralysed after an accident on the A267 at Wellbrook Hill, near Mayfield, in November 1991.

A spokesman for the foundation said motorists should now presume the county council had not gritted any roads.

Edmund King, the foundation's executive director, said: "There seems to be little onus on councils to prepare roads against dangerous seasonal weather conditions.

"With such frightening inconsistencies, motorists should take extra care this winter."

West Sussex County Council said it would try to grit as much as possible, depending on its budget.

A spokeswoman for East Sussex said: "We do not recall seeing the survey otherwise we would have responded."

She said the council would grit 38 per cent of its road network.

Brighton and Hove City Council runs a grading policy for gritting roads, which gives priority to main bus routes and main thoroughfares.

A spokeswoman said it was meaningless to break down gritting levels for counties because some areas had more hills and some had more bus routes.