“Ill-considered” plans to cut 608 roads from the county’s gritting routes have been postponed until next year, prompting criticism from councillors who opposed the initial decision.

A proposal to cut 49km of road from the routes were voted through at Hertfordshire County Council in September.

READ MORE: Schools in Watford and Three Rivers not told of gritting route overhaul

However a petition started by several councillors against the ruling collected hundreds of residents’ signatures, forcing a new debate on the topic at Thursday’s highways panel meeting.

But less than 24 hours before the meeting, council officers admitted they could not implement the changes to the route because a data “error” caused confusion over which roads should be targeted for gritting.

Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Liberal Democrat group leader and highways spokesperson, had raised questions about the effectiveness of the council’s Winter Service Operational Plan and how it would impact on local roads, including those around schools.

"This is at least a stay of execution on ill-considered gritting cuts,” he said.

"Whilst this is welcome news for residents in 608 roads, it's nothing short of a major scandal that the council’s plans are in such disarray.

“Had we not forced the debate again or constantly questioned the plan these problems would not have been unearthed.”

The panel agreed to bring the plans back next summer for review prior to bringing in any more changes.

However Cllr Giles-Medhurst is hoping to fend off any alterations to the current route with help from 2017’s post-election council, which could look drastically different from its current form.          

“This is a victory in the battle to keep our roads safe and schools open when it snows. I hope to persuade the new council post the 2017 elections that it is common sense to do what we are proposing - after all, it is what residents pay their council tax for," added Cllr Giles-Medhurst.

"Officers just wanted to remove those 608 roads again next year. We must not let this happen without a root-and-branch review of what is being done.

“We must protect local communities and schools to enable them to stay open.

Terry Douris, responsible for highways at the county council, said: “We apologise to the public for any confusion caused by this change to publicised new precautionary gritting routes. The council agreed over the summer to review the routes that we salt as a precaution during cold weather to ensure the council has robust and consistent gritting routes across the whole county.

“Unfortunately an error has come to light in the data used which means the plans included roads that didn’t meet the criteria. We have decided that this year’s gritting routes will remain the same as last year’s and where possible we will honour the additional sections of road identified for treatment in our review.

“Next year we will review the proposed gritting network to plan the precautionary routes we will grit during winter 2017/18.”