Work to cut flood threat starts

Work on a plan to enlarge a road in a Berkshire village to reduce the threat of flooding is due to get under way.

Widening Bisham Brook culvert in Hurley High Street, Hurley, Maidenhead will take about five weeks, said the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

The existing pipe culvert, which is sometimes too small to cope with a large volume of rainwater, will be replaced with a larger version.

The project is expected to be completed on 14 March.

Contractors Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services will excavate across the High Street and replace the existing 700mm pipe culvert with a larger concrete box culvert.

A council spokesman said: "For most of the five-week period, traffic in the High Street will be restricted to cars, small vans with a maximum weight of 3.5tons and the local bus service - the number 249 run by Courtney Coaches - with single lane traffic flow controlled by traffic lights."

Royal Borough highways officers have delivered information leaflets to homes and businesses in the village and displayed road closure information and diversion signs on notice boards and roadside verges along the High Street.