Another £140M Lifeline Thrown to Flood Hit Roads

The government has freed up £140million in a bid to help repair roads in flood hit areas following one of the worst winters documented.

 

Announced by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, the emergency road repair fund for the worst hit roads will be extended from £36.5million to £80million. Furthermore, a specific £103.5million will become available to all councils across England.

 

John Furey, Cabinet Member for Transport, Highways and Environment with Surrey County Council said: "It's double the problem for this year. The biggest problem has been the inspection times. We haven't been able to get in and look and see how much has needed to be done. Now we're doing it. We've started the recovery stage. Now we're looking at what needs to be done and looking at what government is going to put into this."

 

Now that flood waters have subsided, the real extent of the damage has been uncovered and councils slashed budgets cannot cope with the bill alone.

 

McLoughlin said: “Having the right infrastructure in place to support businesses and hardworking people is a crucial part of our long-term economic plan. This extra money will help make a real difference to the millions of road users and local residents who rely on local roads, giving them safer and smoother journeys.”

 

The cash lifeline will be distributed based on a formula and will be fast tracked to become available to local authorities by the end of the week. To qualify for extra funding, councils will have to publish their expenditure on their website by the end of August 2014.