Northumberland County Council is focused on main roads as readers highlight icy pavements

But according to readers, pavements in town centres across Northumberland remain treacherous.

A spokesperson for Northumberland County Council said: “Gritting teams have been working round the clock, as they do every winter, gritting the county’s roads, focusing on the main routes before moving onto some of the smaller roads.

“With over 5,000km of road in Northumberland, gritting everywhere is not possible, and drivers are urged to allow extra time for their journeys if they need to travel and leave extra distance for braking.

“The freezing temperatures, combined with overnight sleet and rain, has made for icy conditions on paths and teams are out continuing to treat priority footways in addition to the roads, starting with main town centre footways and moving out from there as resources allow.”

But readers took to Facebook to highlight areas the council has missed.

Users of the social media site highlighted Wooler, Ashington, and Berwick-upon-Tweed as areas where pavements were not sufficiently treated with salt and grit.

And Borders Buses were forced to suspend services to Highcliffe and Spittal due to untreated roads.

According to the council’s alerts website, designated ‘primary’ road routes will continue to be gritted, with work to grit town centre car parks, urban shopping areas, and main footpaths only beginning if resources become available.

The council also has 1,600 grit bins and 200 grit heaps around the county, where members of the public can access grit on a self-help basis.