By Local Democracy Reporter
Steve Shaw
THE Government has announced it will be giving out a share of more than £3million to local authorities that have ports and will be affected by Brexit – but Thurrock is not on the list.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced last week that a pot of money amounting to £3.14million will be shared between 19 authorities that have a major port to prepare for Brexit.
They will each receive £136,362 by the end of April but Thurrock will not be one of the beneficiaries, despite being home to the Port of Tilbury which is regarded as the principal port for London.
A Thurrock Council spokesperson said: “Thurrock Council is disappointed by this announcement. The council will be writing to MHCLG to understand the criteria on which the decision has been based and request that it is revisited in light of the national importance of the three Thurrock based ports.”
Among the authorities set to receive the funding are Dover, Folkestone and Hythe, Thanet, Hull, Portsmouth, Crawley and Southampton.
Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said: “Local authorities have a critical role to play in making a success of Brexit.
“I am acutely aware a greater burden could be placed on the areas surrounding our ports. I have announced how we are allocating £3.14 million to those areas considered to be under the greatest pressure from Brexit.
“I will continue to take the situation under review, working closely with local leaders to ensure they are prepared to respond to Brexit.”
The extra money will be in addition to a share of the £56.5million that the Government has already promised to all local authorities.
The announcement was made on the same day that the Secretary of State for Transport approved a new multimillion-pound terminal at the Port of Tilbury, named Tilbury2.
It is expected to create 8,500 jobs in Thurrock over the next ten to 15 years and will be able to cope with growing demand for building materials, car imports and exports, and increase ferry traffic to carry consumer goods, food and drink and steel between Europe and the UK.
It is expected to be operational by Spring 2020.
Just goes to show you the utter contempt the Westminster Tories have for Thurrock although £136,362 is a pittance compared to the extra trouble UK ports are going to face if the UK leaves the EU without a deal which is looking increasingly possible because of the shambles Theresa Mayhem is making of EU negotiations and her plan to run down the clock. Tory arrogance at its best.
Oh Cookie you are a bitter man.
Look at why Thurrock was not in the running for this money…Nothing to do with Tory or Labour party policies.
I am a bitter man.
TGDH
“Nothing to do with Tory or Labour party policies.”
YES it does.
They could of employed 100.000 civil servents . or even contract in private contractors and agreed a trade deal with 100+ countries to kick in the day we left the EU including the EU.
If they had tried too.
They didn’t.
They would not need to give out any money to ports if that had happened.
Mayhem has cocked this one right up so enough tory MP’s have said.
Catching the Bus – You’re quite right. If the Tories had done the sensible thing and actually worked out a deal with the EU that was worth the paper it was written on instead of wasting time screwing things up or even preparing for a no-deal scenario just in case, we wouldn’t be in such a position that areas with ports would need any extra money.
It’s also true that it’s the Tories who gave the go-ahead for Tilbury2 and then didn’t allocate Tilbury any of the funds being offered to other areas with ports. It’s not within the gift of Labour but it was within the gift of James Brokenshire who I’m pretty sure is a member of the government which I’m pretty sure is a Tory shambles at the moment.
As the criteria for allocating the funds isn’t in the article above, there is no way of telling whether Tilbury should or should not have any of those funds but the criteria are set by the Tories who happen to be in power at the moment and it seems to me that anyone who doesn’t understand that must be an ignoramus of epic proportions whose IQ must be surpassed by the average houseplant by a significant margin. There couldn’t be anyone that stupid though, could there?