Leading Fylde councillor Simon Renwick, who represents Wesham, has written to Lancashire County Council asking for smaller roads in the borough to be gritted.

He wants County Hall to ensure vital link routes between rural villages and communities are not neglected when temperatures plummet.

Snow or sleet is forecast this weekend and the Met Office expects a colder winter than last year across the UK.

Coun Renwick said: "All I'm asking is for the council to show a little more consideration to rural people and consider salting some of Fylde's more minor roads.

"Treales, for instance, is isolated and the people who live there have to run a gauntlet of frosted roads to get to school, work and general day to day activity.

"I do understand there is a cost implication to this, but surely you can't put a cost on lives?"

Coun Renwick, who is cabinet member for culture and tourism, believes the treacherous rural roads should be a priority for gritters rather than missed out.

He added: "Although the county seems to do a reasonable job gritting to main roads, rural Fylde's B-roads are neglected."

Margaret Storey, 56, from Cleveleys, had a lucky escape when her Deo Matiz span out on black ice and ended up down a ditch on the B5260 Weeton Road on December 20.

She said: "It could have easily been much more serious.

"If anything had been coming the other way I dread what could have happened."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said the authority uses 48 gritters to treat more than 2,000 kilometres of road across the county.

He said: "The council recognises it's uneconomic, impractical and indeed unjustifiable to treat the whole highway network when undertaking planned winter maintenance.

"It's therefore necessary to clearly identify the priority roads that will receive preferential treatment for salting and snow clearing.

"The order for priority road salting is non-trunk motorways followed by principal 'A' roads. The next phase includes all B-roads and other specifically defined roads."