Wimblington company offers free salt to pensioners, schools and GP surgeries

A FERTILISER company celebrating its 25th anniversary this year is offering free salt to pensioners, schools and doctors surgeries during the cold snap.

Law's Crop Nutrition is offering the free salt to pensioners living in Wimblington, where the company is based.

Schools and doctors surgeries across Fenland can also get free salt, while businesses can ask for help should they need it.

Pensioners living in the rest off Fenland can also collect a bag of salt for �1, with all proceeds going to Amnesty International.

Mark Law, owner of Law's Crop Nutrition, said: "This is the least we can do in extreme conditions that we may face continuously this week.

"We have got plenty of salt here, we are part of the local community and we employ local people living around here."

He added: "Last week there were more than 20,000 schools closed but we delivered nearly 1,000 tonnes of fertiliser across the region."

Law's, the only fertiliser factory in the Fens, uses salt as part of a sugar beet fertiliser to increase the sugar levels in roots for processing into sugar. The salt improves the plant's ability to withstand extreme heat and drought.

Mr Law decided to do something after visiting his 85-year-old mum Joan last week in Cambridge. She enjoyed Christmas on a cruise around the Mediterranean and arrived home to find her driveway covered in snow and ice.

Mr Law said: "It only took five or 10 minutes to clear her paths by putting some salt down.

"But I realised there must be a lot of people in the same situation, facing icy pavements to go outside just to get some coal or wood for the fire. That small commotion can be turned from an effort to safe task with a few handfuls of salt."

• Pensioners wanting salt should call Law's Crop Nutrition on 01354 740740 or visit the factory from 8am-1pm at Eastwood End, Wimblington. Businesses experiencing trouble should also call the factory.