Roads across Preston and South Ribble are being gritted – and not because it’s going to snow.

Lancashire County Council has its fleet of gritters out to try and stop the roads melting.

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With temperatures rising to more than 30 degrees in many places across the city the road surfaces are softening.

A number of sinkholes have turned up around the city – including near Preston Railway Station.

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Cabinet member for highways and transport county councillor Keith Iddon said: “The prolonged spell of hot weather is causing the bitumen to soften on roads all over the country. The problem is that it can start to stick to car tyres, damaging the road by stripping the surface off, and become slippery, which is a potential safety problem.

“We’ve been using around six of our gritting fleet to apply granite dust where this is happening. This creates a barrier to stop it sticking to people’s tyres, and improve skid resistance.

“Now this problem has started it will carry on until the weather cools off so we’re sending the gritters out every day at the moment to those places where we know this is a problem, as well as responding to any new locations picked up by our inspectors or reported by the public.

“In some places we’re also putting out signs with advisory speed limits to encourage vehicles to slow down for safety.

“It’s not the first time we’ve had to do this in Lancashire, and our climate means that it doesn’t happen very often. If permanent damage is caused to any of the network, and once the weather cools down, we’ll assess these locations for any repairs which may be needed.

“In the meantime, I’d ask people to take particular care on the roads, observe any advisory speed limits in place, and report any problems to us which we may not already be aware of.”

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Anyone who spots sinkholes or problems on the roads can report them to the county council.