Storming ahead with gully cleansing programme

Buckinghamshire Highways teams have been on the road since April, carrying out cleaning and repairs to the thousands of gullies across the whole county. Focus has been dedicated on working as efficiently and effectively as possible which has resulted in the teams surpassing their own targets with 45,500 of the 85,000 gullies completed to date.

Gullies are an important part of the highways drainage system, allowing rainwater to quickly drain away, protecting property and minimising the damage to highways caused by runoff from roads.

This is the third year that Buckinghamshire Council has embarked on a full programme of gully cleansing (and where necessary repairs), as part of its £105 million pound investment in highways over four years. During the work over the previous two years the exact location of each gully has been logged, creating an electronic map which enables the three gully cleansing teams to plan their routes and use their time more efficiently to reach all gullies.

Steven Broadbent, Cabinet Member for Transport said: “We have been really keen to ensure that we make our gully cleansing programme an annual piece of work. In the past few years we have committed to clearing every gully in the county and I have no doubt that this work has had a huge impact on ensuring our road and drainage systems are better equipped to deal with bad weather and heavy rainfall, especially when we are approaching the winter months.”

There are 85,000 gullies that the council is responsible for across Buckinghamshire. In addition to these gullies there is also drainage on privately-owned land, for which landowners are responsible for ensuring drainage is kept clear, to help prevent flooding.