FLOOD victims could potentially receive up to an extra £50,000 in immediate support from Gloucestershire County Council after the recent downpours.

The new funds will be administered by Gloucestershire Community Foundation, which already works with the council, and will be given to victims who have suffered hardship due to flooding or future winter problems.

The proposal was added to an agenda item on the council’s medium term financial strategy by council leader, Cllr Mark Hawthorne on Wednesday morning, November 28, and unanimously supported by the cabinet.

Gloucestershire Community Foundation (GCF) will be giving financial help to people whose homes have been flooded over the last couple of weeks.

These are called emergency relief grants and will take the form of a flat-rate payment of £250 to help with the most immediate needs.

As the impact and need becomes clearer in the coming days and weeks, and as more funds become available to GCF, they will launch further rounds of grants.

In some cases these may be additional grants to the most vulnerable households that have been flooded – and those in receipt of an emergency relief grant.

Council leader Cllr Mark Hawthorne said: "Unfortunately around 50 properties in the county have flooded in the last few days, but the Environment Agency estimate this could have been 500 properties without the investment in flood alleviation.

"Gloucestershire County Council wants to continue taking a lead in protecting people’s homes from flooding. That’s why I am proposing an extra recommendation to commit up to £50,000 to help people in the community respond to issues relating to flooding in their properties.

"This is reinforcing our ongoing commitment to flood alleviation and supporting flood victims since 2007."

The GCF is keen to hear from local charities and community organisations/ facilities that are either helping people affected by the flooding or have been damaged by floods themselves.

Residents who may be eligible for support can apply for the grant from Gloucestershire Communities Fund and details on how to apply will be announced in the next few days.

This follows a recent pledge from the county council to allocate £1.086m of the councils’ current £1.99 million under spend to the six district councils for flood alleviation works in their areas.

Since 2007, Gloucestershire County Council has spent around £20m on flood alleviation works.