LAST year's flooding devastated £20.8 million's worth of Gloucestershire's roads and now Highways chiefs are looking back at what they have achieved in the last 12 months.

Roads and villages across the Cotswolds were particularly badly hit, by flooding in river and flood plains, and particularly at the bottom of hills and in valleys.

Since July last year, Gloucestershire Highways teams have been working hard to get roads back on track.

One of the big success stories is the reconstruction of the A417 from Ampney Crucis to Lechlade which was flooded by surface water.

Sections of the road had the top layers renewed and re-surfaced as a result of this damage to a total cost of £650,000. The work lasted eight weeks and was completed in June.

The road surfaces at Notgrove and Hazleton near Northleach were completely washed away by the storm water.

These had to be re-built before they could be re-opened this summer at a total cost of £100,000.

There has been an extensive system of gulley-emptying and drainage cleaning across the district since the disaster.

Gloucestershire County Councillor Julie Girling, lead cabinet member for Environment, said: "I have been very impressed with the dedication and hard work of Gloucestershire Highways staff over the last year.

"This year we have levied an extra 1.1 percent on council tax to fund this work, but the council tax payer cannot be expected to fund what has been acknowledged by the government in their own Pitt Report as a national priority."

She said the county council will continue to lobby government for more flood funding and believes the extra money from taxing motorists should go on improving drainage.