SEVERE snowfall caused by Storm Emma cost Gwent authorities around £1.2 million earlier this month, the Argus can reveal.

The largest outlay was the £428,000 spent by Caerphilly County Borough Council on clearing the roads and buying grit, bringing winter maintenance spending up to £507,000 since December.

Monmouthshire County Council spent £290,000 during the winter maintenance emergency, having already spent £135,000 during the cold snap in December.

A Monmouthshire County Council spokesman said: “This means that the two snow events cost almost as much as our normal whole winter service.

“This has proved challenging for Monmouthshire as we used around £43,000 and £62,000 of salt during the two events alone, meaning that we used over an average year’s normal application of salt in a period totalling two weeks or so.

“The Welsh Government has offered to assist with these exceptional costs, and Monmouthshire has recently submitted a financial request for help.”

As previously reported, the third highest spend came in Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council where £240,000 had been spent in a single week. It has brought total spending to £500,000 - £150,000 over the council’s entire winter maintenance budget.

Torfaen County Borough Council spent £139,000, bringing their total spend to around £553,000.

Overall, the four authorities are estimated to have spent just under £2 million since December.

Newport was the only authority that were unable to supply their full winter maintenance spends since December.

But a Newport City Council spokeswoman revealed that £120,412 had been spent on Storm Emma alone, with Streetscene staff travelling more than 6,882 miles in response vehicles and spreading more than 1,100 tons of road salt.

A total of 1,581 staff hours were spent responding to incidents on the ground plus continuous behind the scene support.

Cllr Roger Jeavons, the cabinet member for Streetscene, said: “I am delighted at the response of all staff who dealt with the snow and the subsequent pressures that put on council services.

“Other local authorities in Gwent also praised Newport City Council for the way we handled the weather crisis and kept the public informed through the use of our website and on social media channels.”