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13/11/03 - Call for more Emergency Planning Funds

Councillor Rex Toft, Leader of Cumbria County Council, has called for more Government funding to enable councils to carry out their duties in connection with emergency planning. He has also backed up a warning to the Government about the financial impact of new duties that councils will have to shoulder under legislation that is expected soon.   

The warning comes in a survey report by the Local Government Association, which found   

that local authorities in England and Wales were having to spend over £32 million on emergency planning -- £13 million more than the civil defence grant allocated by the Government.   

The association has expressed concern that the shortfall in funding made available to local authorities is likely to grow in the future, despite increased expectations from the Government and the public after the September 11 attacks. It has also warned that the Civil Contingencies Bill, likely to be announced in the Queen’s Speech, will impose new duties on councils that will further increase their emergency planning costs.   

Councillor Toft has urged Government to ensure that more funds are allocated to local authorities to enable them to carry out their new duties. He said:    

"Increasing the duties of local authorities, however justifiably, without providing the resources to carry them out, is not sustainable. It can only end in increasing the burden on council tax payers and biting into the provision of other services."   

County Councillor Jack Richardson, Cabinet member for emergency planning, said:   

"Like all local authorities in England and Wales, Cumbria has experienced significant erosion of funding over more than a decade. Although the inexorable year-on-year reductions ceased for the last two years, this was solely as a result of a judicial review which prevented central government from reducing funding even further and not from central government’s original intent.   

"Central government currently provides an annual sum of £216,000, which is not increased annually to absorb increases in inflation. It is therefore still a reducing sum. The funding provided by central government is enhanced substantially by the county council. In order to meet the standards set by the Government, Cumbria County Council commits an additional £185,000 from the council tax.   

"Funds are therefore already being diverted from other services in order that the county council can meet its current statutory duties. The Civic Contingencies Bill will not only impose significant new duties on local authorities but will also require an increase in overall emergency planning activities. "Unless an adequate level of funding is provided by central government, then it is inevitable that even more funds may have to be diverted from other, equally essential services."