THE government announced that it was giving Somerset an extra £12 million to help repair the roads.

The additional funding was announced in Wednesday’s Budget and forms part of a supplementary £183 million being made available to local authorities to repair weather-damaged roads, £80 million of it specifically for those areas particularly badly affected by the storms and floods.

Bridgwater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said: “Although the clean-up is well underway it is clear the local road network has suffered extensive damage and repairing it is going to be a major task.

“But in the same way as the government has ring-fenced part of this cash allocation for the worst flood-hit zones, I expect to see Somerset county council setting aside the major proportion of the £12 million specifically to address the damage on the Levels.”