£40k payout as M-way takes its toll

More than 30 homes in a Staffordshire village which have lost value due to the M6 Toll are to be improved using a £40,000 compensation handout.

A total of £63,750 has been handed to Cannock Chase Council.

It is to compensate for the effect the toll road has had on 46 nearby council-owned homes in Norton Canes. And now councillors have pledged to spend a £40,000 chunk of the cash on improvements to 34 homes in Norton Canes. The remaining cash will go into a reserve fund.

It is to be spent on other housing projects.

Around £25,000 will be ploughed into installing double glazing for 18 homes in the Red Lion Lane and Red Lion Avenue area.

Another £15,000 will be spent on installing dropped kerbs for 16 homes in Braemar Road to allow tenants to provide "off-street" parking in their front gardens at their own cost.

The money has been paid to the council by the Highways Agency in recognition of the devaluation of properties, increased noise, vibration and fumes from the new motorway.

In 2007 the Express & Star revealed Cannock Council, which is the closest authority to the toll road, had failed to make a claim for compensation while neighbouring councils such as Lichfield and Warwickshire had already received payments.

The motorway opened in 2004 and more than 8,000 claims have been made to the Highways Agency.

Councillor Ann Bernard, cabinet member for housing said: "We are quite pleased with ourselves. We put in an application to the M6Toll and have received a compensation payment of £63,750 from the Highways Agency."

Councillor Bernard said the authority did not have to spend the money on the houses in the village and was free to spend the cash as it liked but she added: "We wanted to spend some of this money for the benefit of the Norton Canes residents in those properties."