BOLTON’S road network seized up in this week’s big freeze “because it snowed at the wrong time”, council chiefs have claimed.

And they have agreed to revisit the borough’s gritting programme to see if changes should be made to treated routes.

The town ground to a halt on Tuesday morning after heavy snow during the night, sparking criticism of Bolton Council’s gritting programme from angry motorists who fear a repeat of the ice-induced misery.

It has been claimed some 80,000 people were caught up in the road chaos.

The council sent gritters out twice the night before the snow arrived at 5am — but there were not enough cars on the roads to churn in the grit.

David Houghton, the council’s highways manager, told an environmental scrutiny committee that everything possible had been done to make the roads safe but that the timing had counted against his team.

He said: “It was a very difficult evening. The forecast said we could get snow but was more likely to be rain so we weren’t totally sure what we were going to get.

“We treated the roads early evening with a good level of grit then stood the team down to see what happened.

“Unfortunately, in the space of one-and-a-half hours, we had two to three inches of snow at 5am.

“That was closer to the rush-hour period than we would have liked. If it had fallen at midnight, we would have had more time to deal with it.

“You won’t like hearing it, but the snow fell at a bad time."

Cllr Nick Peel, executive member for environmental services, said he would be happy to sit down with councillors after opposition members called for a complete review of which roads in Bolton are gritted.