The Conservative Group on Brighton and Hove City Council are proposing a £65,000 investment in extra gully clearances to prevent flooding across the city.

Conservative Councillors have been campaigning for increased gully clearances but have frequently been pushed back by the Labour administration. Now the Conservatives are calling for £65,000 to be invested in the flood prevention works.

The investment of £65,000 would help clear the backlog of infrastructure maintenance and introduce a regular programme of leaf removal at 61 high-risk sites throughout the winter period.

The proposal would be funded using the additional resources of £510,000 from the Final Local Government Finance Settlement 2024/25. This extra funding has come about as the Council were given more money from Government than they had planned for.

Cllr Alistair McNair said “As well as reversing Labour cuts to services used by the most vulnerable, we want to protect our residents from the devastating effect of flooding. As a group we have been raising the issue of flooding and the need for additional gully clearances across the city for a very long time. Now we are proposing using £65,000 of the unallocated funding for additional gully clearances across the city.

“At our last Full Council meeting we had a resident from Woodingdean telling us of the flooding problem in his area, we have seen it in our wards and across the city. Now we are giving Labour the opportunity to stop this problem, with what is in terms of the total budget, not a significant amount of money.”