Council leader tells government 'The Region deserves more help'

Devon County Council leader John Hart has demanded that the Government provides more support for the South West following the latest wave of storm force weather.

In his message Mr Hart calls for the Government to ensure that the South West is not “left to pick up a massive bill” in road repairs.

In recent years many local authorities, including Devon, have seen the amount of money available for travel maintenance fall below the cost of repairs.

Last year Devon’s roads received only £3million pounds in Bellwin funding despite a bill of more than £18 million in road repairs.

Devon, which as a county has more road miles than Belgium, faces an estimated repair backlog of £750 million. However the damage from recent storms may increase the estimate.

These figures do not include the cost of repairs to the rail network from which lost around 150ft of coastal track near Dawlish in last night’s storm.

At Prime Minister’s Questions today, David Cameron announced that the government would make an extra £100 million available for flood repair and pledged to do: "Whatever is required, whether it is dredging work on the rivers Tone and Parrett, whether it is support for our emergency services, whether it is fresh money for flood defences, whether it's action across the board, this government will help those families and get this issue sorted."

While most of this money will be spent across the country in the next year, £10 million will go to immediate repairs round Somerset.

Mr Hart, who also chairs the body representing local authorities across the peninsula, South West Councils, said: “The region deserves more help.

“We’ve been told we just had the wettest January in memory. But that followed the wettest January in memory last year.

“And now we have been battered by storm force winds and rain which has caused chaos across the region.

“There’s nothing anybody can do about the weather. But the time has come for the Government to take action on improving the region’s resilience.

“Once again we are cut off on from the rest of the country by rail.

“For weeks now, travellers have had to go from Exeter to Taunton by bus.

“Now, following the storm damage at Dawlish, the rest of the peninsula is also cut off and we don’t know when the line will be restored.

“Add to that the millions of pounds that it will cost to repair the latest damage to our road network with all the extra potholes that the winter weather has created again, and councils across the South West will be left to pick up a massive bill.

“There are various central funds that we can apply for to meet some of the cost.

“But the time has come for the Government to take more action to make sure that Devon and Cornwall don’t get cut off for weeks every winter.

“We need urgently to look at how our rail links can be better protected and how we can keep the region’s roads open and safe for drivers.

“Obviously there is a real human cost from this latest appalling weather and my heart goes out to the families who’ve been affected.

“But there is a very serious economic cost to these events which affect all of us in Devon and the South West.

“We rely on our key transport links – the M5 and the A 30 and the two main railway lines – as well as the main roads connecting our communities to be open and functioning so that Devon can do business, we can maintain employment and create new jobs.

“I want the Government to recognise that we need to build stronger resilience into our whole transport network as we are likely to face more and more extreme weather conditions in the future.

“That means more money for capital costs as well as to help with the clear up costs.”