A council has admitted it cut its fleet of gritters by almost a third this year.

The decision by West Sussex County Council to cut its gritting fleet from 38 vehicles in 2008/09 to 26 this year has been criticised by opposition councillors.

But the authority claims its salt storage methods have allowed its gritters to be more effective and will save £240,000 a year.

Deputy council leader Lionel Barnard said the decision was based on sound evidence.

He said: “Research showed that if salt were stored under cover the spread-rate could be reduced from 15g per sq m to 10g per sq m, and therefore each gritting vehicle could treat more roads with a given load.

“A storage barn was therefore built at the Drayton Depot and covered sheds made available at other depots.

“This has allowed each vehicle’s original two-hour route to be increased to three hours with the result that 23 vehicles can do the same work as 33.”

The council’s fleet previously consisted of 33 vehicles with five spares.

For this financial year the total was cut to 23 gritters and three spares. The vehicles are leased from contractor May Gurney.