Suffolk County Council agree £20m boost to fix roads

Tiggins Lane, Kelsale, near Saxmundham regularly floods after after heavy rain

A council has agreed to spend an extra £20m on improving roads over the next three years.

Suffolk County Council's cabinet will spend £10m on drainage work on priority flooding spots and an additional £10m will be spent on pavement repairs.

The improvements are excepted to be completed by March 2025.

One councillor said the work would create a "safer and more accessible network in urban and busy rural areas".

In March, council officers confirmed there was 10-year backlog of more than 800 flooding hotspots, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Spending for drainage work will be in addition to current spending to tackle some problem areas and investigating new reports of problem areas.

The footpath work hopes to encourage more people to walk by focusing on the key paths in both town centre and rural areas, such as those leading to and from schools, health centres or shops.

Suffolk County Council agreed to spend £20m on highways and flooding measures

Paul West, cabinet member for operational highways and flooding, said: "Committing this extra funding is a very welcome boost to our already significant improvement programmes in highways.

"Twenty-million pounds divided across drainage and footpath services will enable our highways teams to resolve more drainage issues, where there may be significant highway or property flooding; and footpath improvements to provide a safer and more accessible network in urban and busy rural areas. "

The opposition Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent group questioned whether it is a symptom of underfunding in previous years, with group leader Andrew Stringer calling for improvements in the flooding reporting tool.