MORE than £1m has been committed to help a village overrun with lorries which could lead to a relief road being built.

High Speed Two (HS2) Limited has pledged £1.42m towards mitigation measures to alleviate transport concerns throughout Iver amid plans to relocate the Heathrow Express depot (HEx) from West London to Langley as part of the HS2 rail line construction.

The announcement came on Wednesday last week after Bucks County Council, working alongside district and parish councils across the region, secured the funding following discussions with the HS2 Select Committee.

Councillors presented their case to the Commons HS2 Select Committee last week, expressing concern regarding the impact on Iver from heavy goods vehicle (HGV) congestion with some roads potentially facing an increase of up to 2,860 HGV journeys per week at the peak of construction of the HEx.

Previous mitigation measures had been agreed in October last year, but further measures have now been agreed to deal with the disruption HS2 is set to cause in the area.

Councillor Martin Tett, Bucks County Council leader, said: "While we are obviously disappointed at not yet convincing the Select Committee of the need for a fully bored tunnel through the Chilterns, I do think we have secured some real wins for Bucks.

"For Iver, the transport appraisal begins the job of hopefully bringing some relief from excess traffic.

"Along the route we have made significant gains and I am proud of the way that parish, town, district and county councils have worked together to win these hard-fought concessions."

HS2 Ltd eventually agreed it would work with other transport projects and each would make a 'proportionate contribution' towards mitigation measures based on a transport appraisal to be funded by HS2.

The county council believes that a relief road would provide the best solution, as do residents who voiced their opinion when the select committee visited the village earlier this month.

Residents and councillors lined the streets as members of the committee embarked on a tour of the roads which would be affected by the relocation of the depot two weeks ago.

A statement from Iver Parish Council read: "The ball is now in Bucks County Council's court and we will all be pressurising them to develop plans for taking a relief road forward to ensure the undertaking that HS2 have given is realised."