Council gritting lorry Nicole Saltslinger has the X Factor

Oldham Council has named its new gritter Nicole Saltslinger after the X Factor judge and former Pussycat Doll.

Ten-year-old Eve McGrath came up with the name, which beat off the challenge from hundreds of other competition entries including Gritney Houston, Grit Expectations and Gritsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Anti-Slip Machiney. 

The primary school pupil, who is a big fan of the singer Nicole Scherzinger, was invited to a special naming ceremony at the council depot.

The new lorry will now join a fleet of gritters including Freddie Salted, Walter the Salter and Gritney Spears.

"Firstly, we'd like to thank Eve for coming up with such a great name," said councillor Fida Hussain. "We're delighted with how well the competition took off.

"It captured the imagination of Oldham residents and the whole nation. It was intended as a bit of fun and we even treated the silly suggestions with a pinch of salt.

"We ran a similar competition a few years ago which was also really well received but this time I think we've taken it up a notch.

"On a single tweet more than 70,000 people engaged with us in one way or another and some of the suggestions we had were fantastic."

Councillor Hussain said Oldham is usually hit hard when snow falls, and she praised the workers who keep the borough moving.

"Our gritters obviously play a vital role in that and so it's nice that we can have a bit of fun by running competitions like this whilst teaching young people about road safety," she said.

It is not known if Ms Scherzinger is aware of the Oldham honour.