As the grit runs out, a Yorkshire council moves its salt stockpile to stop people stealing it

The decision comes as police and councils across the UK have warned people not to be tempted to steal supplies of community grit as the cold snap continued.

A spokeswoman said there had been some minor incidents in the county of salt being taken from bins and this has led managers to shift the stock at the depot at Threshfield, near Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales, to a more secure yard at Skipton.

She said: "We've done this a precaution due to the rural location of the Threshfield yard."

The spokeswoman stressed there had been no reported thefts from the Threshfield depot itself.

Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire said it had spent its annual gritting budget as a result of the bad weather.

A spokesman said the council allocated 1.79 million to gritting each year, enough for five days of snow and ice, but that this had already been spent.

But the council assured residents that the gritting service would continue as much as possible.

Kirklees has been allocated a supply of salt from the Government's salt cell, which is being used to keep priority routes and key areas clear and safe.

The spokesman said side roads could not be gritted and grit bins could not be filled as the council did not know when it would get a further supply of salt and needed to avoid running out altogether.

Meanwhile, the salting of motorway hard shoulders is being halted in an effort to conserve dwindling reserves.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said where it was possible to adjust the salt spreaders, only the main carriageways would be treated.

"To make best use of our salt supplies the Highways Agency will no longer be treating motorway hard shoulders where our salt spreaders can be adjusted to treat running lanes only," he said.

The agency will, however, continue to salt the hard shoulders on the managed sections of the M6 and M42 where it is used as a running lane.

"We will continue to keep the situation under review," the spokesman added.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said councils had agreed to try to cut their use of salt by a quarter in an attempt to make supplies last for the protracted cold snap.

Local authorities and Mayor of London Boris Johnson had agreed to follow the Highways Agency's lead in reducing salt consumption by 25%, Lord Adonis told reporters.

The Highways Agency has decided not to grit the hard shoulder of motorways in an effort to prioritise supplies.

But it was not immediately clear how councils - responsible for local road networks - would make the same reductions.

Current supplies to local authorities were also sufficient until Tuesday, when the Government's "Salt Cell" next meets to direct the distribution of new supplies.

"My advice from the Local Government Association is that all local authorities have a supply of salt to meet requirements until the next meeting of the Salt Cell on Tuesday, provided they prioritise the distribution of salt in their area appropriately," he said.

"The local authorities will need to take decisions on the prioritisation of salt distribution locally in the same way as the Highways Agency is taking those decisions nationally."

The Highways Agency is reducing salt consumption by 25% a day.

Lord Adonis added: "I've held discussions with the Local Government Association and with the Mayor of London and they agreed similarly that they will seek to reduce by 25% their consumption of salt per day to improve resilience next week whilst prioritising essential public services and roads within their areas."