More than 1,500 tonnes of salt have been spread on East Renfrewshire’s roads in the space of a week as council staff try to keep people moving.

Following a prolonged spell of freezing weather, the extent of East Renfrewshire’s gritting effort has been revealed online.

Treacherous conditions were present across the area, with the council covering more than 7,500km of roads.

Operating 24 hours a day, gritters spread more than 1,545 tonnes of salt.

This is roughly equivalent to the weight of 200 African bush elephants, 21 space shuttles or 15 blue whales.

As well as the gritting operation, which covered 65 per cent of the area’s routes, the public grit bins were also looked after.

All 334 salt bins in East Renfrewshire were filled twice throughout the week, with some refilled three or four times, if requested by residents.