AN OTTERY Councillor is appealing for Devon County Council to repair the local Public Rights of Way after they sustained serious damage after the freak storm in October. Following the severe flooding which caused thousands of pounds worth of damage, Counc

AN OTTERY Councillor is appealing for Devon County Council to repair the local Public Rights of Way after they sustained serious damage after the freak storm in October.

Following the severe flooding which caused thousands of pounds worth of damage, Councillor Roger Giles asked DCC to include in the bid for funding repairs, the Public Rights of Way (PROW) network.

But since writing to the council he realised the situation was worse than he first suspected.

He said: "Since writing initially I have used several of the local PROW and have found the damage to be even more widespread than I had feared.

"We are very fortunate to have a very large and attractive number of public rights of way in this part of east Devon, which allow people to enjoy our wonderful countryside.

"It is vitally important that the damage which took place on 30th October is repaired as quickly as possible, and that the network is restored to the best possible condition in the near future."

He told DCC that several of the PROW were already sub-standard before the flooding and that measures should be taken to restore the roads to a high quality.

He added: "I hope very much that the opportunity will be taken to bring our local PROW up to the standard that they should have been and should be, rather than to return them to the standard that they were prior to October 30."

A Devon County Council spokesman said: "Our priority is working with our partner agencies to help people get their lives and homes back to normality, and hopefully allow us all to gain an understanding of what has happened.

"The public rights of way network is one of a number of issues that will be examined alongside highways and drainage improvements.