European U-turn over £110M flood cash (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

European U-turn over £110M flood cash

9:44am Friday 9th May 2008

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THE Cotswolds will miss out on millions of pounds of flood recovery money promised by the EU after Brussels bureaucrats discovered a loophole.

The country was promised £110million aid from the European Union Solidarity Fund after the summer floods caused billions of pounds worth of damage in several places in the UK, particularly in Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds.

However this week it was revealed only £31million of the promised aid would be delivered - just over a quarter of the original sum.

The European Parliament voted in March to give the money from the Solidarity Fund, a pot of money set aside for which member states can apply for if they suffer natural disaster.

The Department of Communities and Local Government said the £110million was a premature' estimate and the £31million was confirmed as the actual total in early April.

In 1984, the UK agreed to and abatement mechanism' or rebate with the EU as the country pays so much more money to the EU than it receives. This meant the UK is paid this rebatement money year-on-year.

But part of that agreement included a clause stating that the UK would be allowed less from the Solidarity Fund and over pots of EU cash.

Barry Dare, leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said: "I am extremely angry and distressed.

"We were expecting £110million for the whole of the UK we would have been at the front of the pecking order for some of that.

"Costs to the whole county, including individuals and businesses, is estimated to be £65million, in terms of highways we are looking at £25-28million and total county council costs of £35million.

"The floods were the worst disaster to have affected peacetime Britain in the history of the country. We are still left with a very severe bill."

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: "It's very disappointing as far as Gloucestershire is concerned and it is unfortunate that people's hopes were raised perhaps unrealistically."

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