A COUNCIL looks set to raid its reserves to fund the cost of cleaning up after last winter's bad weather.

Caerphilly council members agreed last December to transfer £161,000 from its reserves to foot the bill run up by a ten-day period of severe weather.

Now councillors have been told that was just the start of a prolonged spell of bad weather, leaving the Plaid Cymru-controlled council's technical services directorate - which received £152,000 of the original amount transferred from reserves - needing another £257,365 from the same source.

A Labour councillor has hit out at the authority for needing to take cash from its reserves twice for the same purpose.

At a Cabinet meeting, members recommended that the council transfers the extra cash to the highway maintenance budget, along with £117,616 of grant aid from the National Assembly.

They heard the wet weather had cost the authority £471,000 between October 28, 2000 and June 30, 2001, the qualifying period for the Assembly grant. This included:

£40,000 for landslips and washouts,

£25,000 for carriageway washout reconstruction,

£35,000 for drainage or culvert emergency repairs.

Meanwhile, the total winter maintenance expenditure for the 2000/2001 financial year was £497,981 - around £100,000 more than the previous year.

Councillor John Taylor, cabinet member for transportation and planning, said: "I think this is a proper use of council reserves, which are there to deal with unforeseen circumstances."

But after the meeting Labour councillor for Risca West, Keith Griffiths, hit out at the amount being taken from reserves, saying greater provision should be made in the council's budgets to deal with the bills left behind by bad weather.

"We suffered more than most in Risca," said Councillor Griffiths. "We are at the bottom of the valley, and not only do we get flooding but we get all the silt that is left behind. I am all for providing the services, but these things should be budgeted for correctly.

"They boasted about keeping council tax down, and having sent the demands out they now find they made a serious error of judgement and have to take money from the balances."

*PICTURED: Youngsters cycled through flood water in Machen