COUNCIL bosses are counting the cost of this winter's floods - and it will run into many millions.

Almost 250 repair jobs to infrastructure across the Borders have already been identified.

And many more repairs are expected to be found when surveyors inspect the aftermath of the most recent deluge in Jedburgh and Hawick.

A total of 60 different repairs to roads, bridges, culverts and embankments as well as local authority buildings have been identified across Tweeddale.

Since the start of December until the end of January a total of 96 flood warnings for the Scottish Borders were issued by SEPA.

Evacuations were made in Peebles, Hawick, Jedburgh and Newcastleton as rivers reached some of the highest levels on record.

A dedicated team of 17 local authority officials have carried out inspections across the area - including around 2,000 kilometres of roads and 550 bridges - over the past month.

A survey report of the damage has now been compiled by Scottish Borders Council's financial business partner, Donald Macdonald.

He stated: "A key element of the work over the last few weeks, after the initial emergency response, has been to inspect the council’s infrastructure and catalogue the storm damage that needs to be rectified which will form the basis of workload in the coming weeks.

"Having undertaken most of these inspections, excluding some bridges where river levels continue to make this work unsafe, it is clear the scale of the damage is very extensive."

Much of the repair bill will be met by the Scottish Government under the emergency Bellwin Scheme.

But the rules which accompany the funding require repairs to be carried out within two months of the flooding.

Scottish Borders Council will ask for an extension due to the repeat incidents throughout December and January.

Mr Macdonald added: "Due the fact that the council is dealing with multiple extreme weather events in quick succession, officers have determined that

the works cannot reasonably be completed in the stipulated two month postevent period.

"Accordingly, officers have asked the Scottish Government for an extension of the works completion date and helpfully they have readily agreed to extend this to April 30."

A schedule of works has been compiled by council departments.

The 240 identified repairs - of which 114 are classed as major works - include 66 pot holes, 34 stabilisation works, 16 road edge repairs and14 damaged culverts.

A further 50 repairs are required on bridges, buildings and walls.

Under the Bellwin Scheme, Scottish Borders Council will have to use 0.2 per cent of its net revenue budget, which is £508,000, as its share of the repair bill.

Members of the ruling administration at Newtown St Boswells are expected to free up the money from reserves at their meeting on Tuesday.

They will also be asked to agree for other planned infrastructure works to be delayed to allow for the flood repairs to take priority.