Salt Exported from Ireland

national | miscellaneous | other press Sunday January 10, 2010 19:04 by Oswald Bastable

John Gormley may be striving to secure salt supplies from abroad but meanwhile salt is being exported from Ireland!

As the snow continues to fall there are fears that there is not enough salt for the roads as people return to work on Monday morning.

The county council says new supplies of salt are to be delivered to Cornwall Council’s highways service on Wednesday, January 13.

The council had ordered additional supplies of the salt needed to carry out precautionary salting runs on the county’s roads from a supplier in Ireland more than three weeks ago. Although the supplier had sufficient quantities of salt in stock to meet the Council’s order, they were having problems identifying a boat to transport the material to Cornwall.

This delay, coupled with the severe weather conditions, had resulted in the Council using existing salt stocks at a quicker rate than anticipated, creating concerns among Highways staff. In order to preserve stocks the Council has prioritised precautionary salt runs on the A and B roads.

The Council’s suppliers Irish Salt Sales Ltd has now confirmed that a boatload of salt will arrive in Cornwall on Wednesday, 13 January. This is expected to contain around 4,000 tonnes of salt. Under normal conditions this should provide enough stock to carry out precautionary salting on the A and B road network for the next three weeks or for around 10 to 14 days if the extreme weather conditions continue.