CALLS for a council to grit more of its roads in a bid to prevent the icy chaos which affected the area over the festive period have been backed by a national motoring organisation.

The RAC also called on the government to make it a legal duty for councils to keep roads free of ice during bad weather.

It added that different levels of gritting across the country meant that drivers faced a safety lottery.

The comments coincide with criticism of Blackburn with Darwen Council's gritting policy during the week long freeze from December 29 from residents and businesses.

Last week, a council watchdog called for as many roads as possible to be gritted in the borough, even though it would cost substantially more than the £333,000 spent at present.

The council last week admitted gritting only priority routes during the freeze and RAC executive director Edmund King said the RAC backed the watchdog's request. Mr King was commenting after the release of RAC-endorsed research by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers into gritting, which found that, on average, only 30 per cent of roads are gritted nationally.

Frances McCarthy, president of APIL, said a House of Lords ruling 18 months ago meant a local authority could not be held legally liable for failing to grit roads. She added that councils abided by a voluntary code of practise which was no replacement for a statutory obligation.

"The fact that many local authorities have already made the link between salting and budgets is extremely worrying," she said.

"Something has to be done to make local authorities more accountable."

Mr King said: "Getting the gritters out during icy winter months prevents injuries and cuts the costs of bad weather delays and congestion.

"With such big inconsistencies between local authorities' gritting plans, there is a road safety lottery in parts of the country.

"We will be urging the government to review local authorities' commitment to grit roads as a matter of urgency. Certainly we want to see a much higher proportion of roads gritted across the country. We understand councils can't grit everywhere but people don't just use the major routes."

APIL asked the country's councils to return a survey on their winter maintenance schemes and had 26 respondents.

Blackburn with Darwen Council was not contacted, but Lancashire County Council, which represents all of East Lancashire's other councils, was.

From officers' responses, APIL found that Lancashire gritted more roads than the recommendation by the government that between 24 and 38 percent should be treated.

But the council conceded that: "No guarantees can be given that if highway maintenance suffers a significant reduction in budget, this area will not be reviewed."