BLAENAU Gwent County Borough Council has spent £500,000 to tackle heavy snowfall throughout the borough in the last four months.

The local authority spent £240,000 in a week to cope with snow brought on from the so-called “Beast from the East” earlier this month.

A report, presented to a scrutiny committee on Tuesday, also showed that the council had spent £260,000 on its winter maintenance service from December to February.

It meant that BGCBC had exceeded its yearly service budget by £150,000.

A Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council (BGCBC) spokeswoman said that the "unprecedented" conditions were so severe that the council's emergency response team (ERT) was activated on February 28.

The £240,000 was largely spent on the ERT, extra drivers, additional specialist machinery such as tractors an JCBs, and more salt.

The council also hired out all of the available plants in the immediate area to help with the snow clearance.

The BGCBC spokeswoman added: "Our priorities were clearing the main routes and looking after vulnerable people.

"Our staff went above and beyond to get to these people and get the borough moving again and we worked well with partners in the emergency services, health and neighbouring councils.

"Thanks also to members of the community who supported us and worked together to also help with snow clearance and for their patience when services, such as waste and recycling, were suspended."

BGCBC are now reviewing the service to see what can be improved in the future.

The service runs a standby operation from November 1 to April 1 each year, employing 25 drivers and five supervisors.

It also has five frontline gritters covering the main gritting routes in Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, Brynmawr, Nantyglo, Blaina, Abertillery and the borough’s industrial estates.

BGCBC stocks 500 tonnes of salt at its own shed at the New Vale waste recycling site in Ebbw Vale together with 4,000 tonnes at the regional barn.

The salt barn, which holds 10,000 tonnes of salt, is shared between four other local authorities: Caerphilly (3,500 tonnes), Monmouthshire (2,000), Torfaen (2,000) and Merthyr (500).

There are also 560 grit bins throughout Blaenau Gwent, which are topped up prior to the winter maintenance season.

Each bin costs the authority £250 with salt and labour, meaning that £140,000 has been spent on them.