COUNTY COUNCILLOR JULIE GIRLING WRITES.................

When we Conservatives took control of Gloucestershire County Council  in 2005 we embarked on an ambitious programme to improve the appalling condition of the roads that  we had  inherited from the Liberal Democrats. We promised an extra £4m per year until 2009 and we’ve delivered on that promise. Unfortunately we suffered a massive blow to our programme with the July floods , and I want  to let residents in Abbeydale and Abbeymead know what the current position is.

The estimated cost of damage to our network is now £23m, not far short of one years total maintenance expenditure budget!

The Government have confirmed that they are prepared to pay up to £10m of that bill. That’s just not good enough, we don’t think it’s fair for the council tax payer to be picking up the bill for this extraordinary event.

 We all remember Gordon Brown telling us he would do everything possible to help. Well, despite all the announcements you hear about flood relief money,  he’s left us still working on a backlog of flood repair work, while the roads continue to deteriorate. Even more disgracefully we have not been given one penny of funding to start work on new flood prevention measures.

 I would like to thank everybody for their forbearance and give you my personal assurance that we are working very hard to get Gloucester a better deal and will report back to you again later in the spring.

Councillor Julie Girling

 Cabinet Member for the Environment