We need more salt Gordon, says Boris Johnson

GORDON Brown must go to the salt mines and sort out the delivery crisis so London gets enough grit, said the Mayor of London Boris Johnson in West Hampstead today.

Councils across London are facing shortages after not receiving deliveries of grit which have been on order since before Christmas and some, including Barnet, have had to scale back their gritting operations.

The Mayor did a short tour of West Hampstead with Conservative parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn Chris Philp culminating in a Q&A with residents in a coffee shop.

He said: "There is a shortage of grit in London. We have a crisis and I want to send Gordon Brown to the salt mines now to sort out the delivery of salt. In London we are not getting enough.

"The government needs to get a grip on salt and deliver it to London which is the motor of the country's economy.

"We are doing everything we can to keep the tubes moving but we do face more snow coming over the next few days."

He also urged schools to stay open during the snow because of the huge impact the closures have on working parents who cannot arrange last-minute childcare.

He added: "We are doing far better than other parts of Britain keeping our schools open because the almighty has been kind to us - maybe because we don't have bendy buses anymore saying there is no god."

The weather forecast over the weekend is light snow showers tomorrow and light snow on Sunday with temperatures around 2C all weekend.

Camden Council said today it has enough grit to treat priority roads on today and tomorrow (Saturday).

A spokesman said: "We continue to receive deliveries of further supplies of grit salt and over the next 24 hours a further delivery is scheduled to ensure the continued gritting of priority routes should the weather deteriorate over the weekend.