RESIDENTS of the Forest are set to benefit from an additional £1.8m investment in services across the county from Gloucestershire County Council.

A council report, which will be put before cabinet this week, shows a projected underspend of around £1.79m in the 2020/21 financial year, which the council will invest in services countywide.

£1 million will go into creating a ‘Gloucestershire Restart Fund’ which the council says will allow for ‘a range of activities to help the county get back to normal as quickly as possible following the COVID-19 pandemic’, further details of which will be announced at a later date.

The ‘Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund’ will receive an additional £220,000 to fund 500 new charging ports across the county, to continue the council’s ‘ongoing efforts to tackle climate change’ and encourage a ‘greater take up’ of electric vehicles.

Additionally, councillors will each receive a £10,000 increase in funding for Highways Local schemes in 2021/22, meaning each councillor will have £30,000 to fund local resurfacing, road safety and drainage repairs.

Cllr Mark Hawthorne, leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said: “Due to sound financial management we are able to invest even more into key areas for the benefit of Gloucestershire.

“The 500 new electric vehicle charging points shows our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint, while the £1 million we are investing in the Restart Fund will allow our county to get back on its feet following the pandemic as quickly as possible.”

The council also announced last week that its cabinet was set to approve the further development of its Infrastructure Recovery Strategy (IRS).

The IRS was setup last year to generate funds for future investment from developments benefitting from infrastructure improvement schemes, following the county council’s successful bid to secure funding for the upgrade of Junction 10 of the M5 at Cheltenham from Homes England in March 2020.

Although the strategy is currently focused on the upgrade of the M5 junction, the funds recovered will help to unlock additional housing elsewhere in Gloucestershire through investment in ‘necessary infrastructure’ such as improvements to roads and public transport.

Cllr Nigel Moor, cabinet member for environment and planning, said: “This will give us a greater opportunity to recover funds for future investment to support employment and growth in our county through improvements to pavements, cycle ways and public transport, as well as roads.”