FRESH optimism has surfaced among flood-weary residents anxiously seeking a relief scheme for their road in Grange-over-Sands.

But it could be years and around £1 million worth of work before culverts in Windermere Road are connected to a system that would see floodwater discharged into the sea.

In March next year, Network Rail is to build a railway underpass connecting the Bayley Lane car park with the Edwardian Promenade while the Furness Line is closed for 16 weeks to allow repair work to be carried out on the Leven Viaduct, near Ulverston.

The underpass - which is designed to replace a pedestrian crossing on the railway tracks will include two box culverts to alleviate flooding in the car park.

But the box culverts can also be linked to existing culverts in Windermere Road to direct water out of the road and into the sea during low tides.

The culverts have been included in the project on the insistence of SLDC as a condition attached to planning consent.

But environmental manager at South Lakeland District Council Mark Richardson said there were no plans to connect Windermere Road in the foreseeable future.

"The box culverts will be built to provide a facility for the future but there are no plans to utilise it yet," he said. "Doing so would involve considerable work and around £1 million."

He added that such a scheme would be defeated in times of high tide.

The fresh optimism comes a week after residents and businesses of Windermere Road were left counting the cost of water damage for the second time in 20 months.

Around 12 homes and businesses were left under four inches of water following heavy downpours last Monday in what has been described as the worst flood to hit the road in more than two decades.

The flooding, exacerbated after culverts became blocked with debris, would have been much worse if residents had not drafted in their own private contractor to pump away the rising flood water, which flowed down Windermere Road from Hampsfell and surrounding fields, say campaigners.

John Smith, of the Windermere Road Action Group, said residents saw the underpass as a glimmer of hope in their fight for a flood relief scheme.

"We are just hoping for forward action," he said.

However, Windermere Road does not meet the Environment Agency criteria for a flood scheme and lies behind Stock Beck flood scheme for Kendal in order of importance.