This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Emergency flooding assistance under consideration
16/09/2004
Perth and Kinross council and Stirling Council have received confirmation from the Executive today that the Bellwin Scheme has been activated to consider emergency financial assistance to help deal with the heavy flooding it had to cope with in August.
Deputy Finance Minister Tavish Scott has agreed to activate the Bellwin Scheme which provides emergency funding under section 155 of the Local Government Housing Act 1989.
The councils requested help after severe flooding in August which resulted in landslides, serious damage to the local transport infrastructure (local roads and footpaths) and significant disruption to local communities.
Mr Scott said:
"Perth and Kinross council and Stirling council have applied for help under the Bellwin scheme and I am pleased that we are able to trigger it to help those local communities affected.
"Flooding can have a devastating effect on local communities and nobody who saw the pictures of the landslides could fail to be horrified by them.
"I believe it is only right that we are able to consider helping them with emergency relief to deal with the immediate aftermath of safeguarding life and property and keeping key communications open."
The Executive will consider all eligible expenditure under the terms of the Scheme when claims have been received from the Councils.
The Bellwin Scheme is a discretionary scheme which exists to give special financial assistance to authorities who would otherwise be faced with an undue financial burden as a result of providing relief and carrying out immediate work due to large-scale emergencies.
The key criterion for the Scheme is "the safeguarding of life and property and prevention of suffering or severe inconvenience".
Where the criteria of the scheme are met, grant is payable to authorities at 85 per cent of the eligible costs incurred above a threshold set for each authority.
Perth and Kinross council threshold is £298,567 in 2004-05 and Stirling council threshold is £195,806 in 2004-05.