A HEAVY snowfall early yesterday morning brought chaos on the roads - despite salting. A Hampshire County Council spokesman said 42 lorries were used on priority roads, moving on to minor roads, to cover most of the county's 6,000 mile road network. Despite those efforts many motorists found the conditions difficult. Although the massive salting operation meant most roads were passable with care, even some treated surfaces proved slippery and extreme care was needed. Yesterday morning the county was advising: "Drive with caution and leave plenty of space between you and the car in front," a spokesman said. The problem with salting is that a regular passage of vehicles is needed to make it totally effective and with many people on holiday that wasn't happening. In the north of the county farmers were put on standby to use snow ploughs if necessary. In Andover town centre salting was carried out twice by Test Valley Borough Council. Bus services in Andover were badly hit with many normal services in the town being cancelled because of the conditions. Instead, a fleet of minibuses replaced the usual double deckers as Stagecoach/Hamp-shire Bus battled to get people to work. Dave Taplin, the Andover controller said he and a colleague shovelled snow away from the depot outside the Chantry Centre to make it easier for drivers to manoeuvre their vehicles up the slight slope. He was hoping to get a gritter into the area. Conditions outside the town were no better.