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Emergency funding considered for council
31/07/2012
Ministers are considering emergency financial assistance for East Ayrshire to help deal with the costs of the storm damage earlier this month.
East Ayrshire Council made representations to the Scottish Government to activate the Bellwin Scheme as a result of the severe storms in July. The Bellwin Scheme is a discretionary scheme to give financial assistance to councils who faced an undue financial burden as a result of large-scale emergencies.
There is no automatic entitlement to assistance and local authorities are expected to include a small amount within their annual budget to deal with unforeseen emergencies.
Finance Secretary John Swinney will consider all eligible expenditure under the terms of the Scheme when formal claims have been received from the Council.
Related information
The Bellwin Scheme operates under Section 155(2) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. Councils may make applications for additional financial assistance for eligible expenditure over and above their threshold limit under the discretionary scheme. Further details of the Bellwin scheme.