As part of the Frontline First fund, Roads and Transportation Services allocated the additional resources to a gully cleaning and drainage repairs programme.

The investment has enabled the team to temporarily double their existing fleet of three gully cleaning vehicles to six, using hired vehicles to supplement their own fleet.

These changes have given them the ability to increase the frequency of the gully route cleans in order to keep gullies functioning more effectively.  

The number of gully check/cleans per year has risen from around 43,000 gullies per year to around 68,500 check/cleans per year, an increase of 59%. The team are well on track to complete the revised routes this year, and the additional vehicles enhance their resilience to deal with any arising flood events.

Additionally, 23 sites have been identified for more significant repair work involving intrusive investigations or pipe repairs and they expect to have these completed by the end of the financial year.

Chair of the council’s Community and Enterprise Resources Committee, Councillor Robert Brown, said: “This work will make a huge difference to many local communities, and I would like to thank all the employees involved in carrying out this project.

“Unfortunately, the council is no longer getting the funding we need to continue to do all the good work we want to.

“We have limited resources available, but the council have given priority to specific environmental work like this. Blocked drains and gullies lead to flooding problems, particularly with heavy autumn leaf fall so this concentrated work to clear drains should make a huge difference to local areas across South Lanarkshire.”

The Frontline First Fund is a £3.5m fund set aside by the council to tackle a range of environmental clean-up works over a period of three years.

The fund will deliver additional work not currently possible under existing budget constraints.