Road gritter named after Nicole Scherzinger

A new road gritter has been named Nicole Saltslinger, beating off a host of witty suggestions in an online poll.

Undeterred by the Boaty McBoatface saga, Oldham Council asked the public to come up with a name for the vehicle.

The winning entry - a play on the name of Nicole Scherzinger - was coined by 10-year-old Eve McGrath, who is a fan of the X Factor judge.

There were more than 5,000 entries including Gritney Spears, Usain Salt, Gritty McGritface and Gritter Garbo.

However, council officials decided to choose the winner themselves rather than the most popular as "there were quite a few rude ones".

Nicole Scherzinger is a judge on ITV1's X Factor show

Other suggestions included the wordy Gritsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Anti-Slip Machiney as well as True Grit, Spready Mercury and Grit Expectations.

But Nicole Saltslinger came out on top, beating other gems such as Gritney Houston and Spready Eddie.

Councillor Fida Hussain, cabinet member for environment services, said: "Firstly we'd like to thank Eve for coming up with such a great name.

"We're delighted with how well the competition took off.

"It captured the imagination of Oldham residents and the whole nation.

Eve McGrath is a fan of Nicole Scherzinger

"It was intended as a bit of fun and we even treated the silly suggestions with a pinch of salt."

He added: "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."

Oldham Council's competition - which was meant to be restricted to children - comes after the National Environment Research Council asked the public to come up with and vote for the name of the UK's new polar research ship.

Despite being the overwhelming winner in the poll, Boaty McBoatface was deemed inappropriate and the ship was named Sir David Attenborough.

Boaty McBoatface won the poll but was deemed an inappropriate name