A delivery of salt bins to solve travel chaos on community routes had to be scrapped – because of the weather.

Hampshire County Council has promised 1,300 new bins, which were requested by parish councils and community groups.

They were due to be installed by early December, but those delivering them were drafted in to tackle the snow and ice instead. The council has now promised extra resources to catch up on the deliveries. Environment boss Councillor Mel Kendal said: “The extreme cold weather has arrived earlier than usual and so we have put extra resources into making sure new salt bins are delivered as soon as possible.

“I would stress that, while we will be refilling these as regularly as we can, the priority for winter maintenance will always be to keep the main road network clear and salted.”

Residents in a Hampshire town are angry about the number of new salt bins the county council is providing them. Alresford Town Council has only secured six additional bins, when it asked for 35. Roy Gentry, chairman of the town council, said: “This is another example of the county council delivering too little too late, despite making re-assuring noises back in the summer.”

He added that Winchester would be getting 48 extra bins, while the nearby village of Cheriton will get five.

County council leader Ken Thornber pledged in the spring to invest £800,000 on 4,000 new salt bins to help combat the big freeze. The latest figures show that only 1,300 have been distributed around the county with another 600 on order.

A county council spokeswoman said the number of bins mirrored the demand: “The amount we are supplying is in response to the requests received from the parishes.”