Programme gets underway to help treat flood-hit roads

Following one of the wettest winters on record, many of Buckinghamshire’s roads suffered extensive damage as a result of widespread flooding.
Due to the severity of the impact - not just in Buckinghamshire but across the whole of the country - central government established a Severe Weather Recovery Scheme (SWRS) which is aimed at supporting communities in repairing local highway networks.
Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) successfully submitted a bid to the Department for Transport (DfT) for a share of the SWRS and was awarded a total of £2,507,486 to help repair damage to the local road network. This additional funding will supplement the funding already allocated for the countywide road treatment and drainage programmes.
Ruth Vigor-Hedderly, Cabinet Member for Transportation said: "This additional budget is very welcome, and I would like to personally thank the team involved in securing this amount of funding. It will mean that we can target repair work to the roads that were most severely damaged by the flooding over the winter, which is really good news."
This additional funding can only be used to repair flood-hit roads. Assessments of the selected sites across the county have been carried out to confirm the full extent of work required, along with any necessary drainage works to reduce or prevent flooding in the future.
65 sites have now been confirmed to receive treatment as part of the SWRS. Additional drainage works under the programme are due to commence in mid-June 2014, with road treatment works to follow from July onwards. Work on all sites will be completed by the end of 2014.
More information, including a list of the sites to be treated as part of the SWRS, can be found on Transport for Buckinghamshire’s Service Information Centre at: http://www.transportforbucks.net/Roadworks-Centre/Schemes-and-projects/Our-schemes-and-projects/Severe-Weather-Recovery-Scheme.aspx
Following an announcement in the 2014 Budget statement, the Government has made a fund of £168 million available for pothole repairs. BCC have submitted a bid to the DfT to receive a share of this fund. An announcement is expected soon if the bid has been successful.