General Discussion
Seaton has been given £302,000 funding for regeneration. Teignmouth has been given 1.8 million for an Arts centre.
Dawlish? Perhaps Bailey's will get a refit.
@Michael Clayson - can you tell us please what local councils (and I include all three tiers in the term local councils) can and cannot spend public money on in terms of local infrastructure, and what restrictions there are with regard to LAs borrowing money from the money markets in order to for them to spend that money on local infrastructure requirements.
It would take a book to give that a serious answer Lynne
you may be aware that the funding announced today for the Carlton Theatre in Teignmouth comes from the Big Lottery Coastal Communities Fund
Michael, what I am getting at is this:
Somewhere in the back of my brain is lurking the thought that local authorities are restricted as to how much money they can borrow by dictate of central government. Is that right?
Also, and this applies to central government as well, surely now is the time with record low interest rates for loans to be taken out.
Yes, council debts count as part of the National Debt and so need government sanction
As far as I am aware, Councils are generally trying to cut debt - not increase it. It is the proverbial "dead money" that is difficult to sanction when you are having to cut old people homes, day centres, youth services, libraries, school transport subsidies etc etc etc.
So.......if this country hasn't got any money to spare and borrowing is out of the question then where is the, presumably public, money going to come from for all the flood/coastal defences that we now need?
(not necessarily expecting you to answer that. Regard the question as rhetorical).
Coastal defences are generally the responsibility of the Environment Agency, or as we know in the case of the sea wall, Network Rail (mainly taxpayer funded). The government will stump up the funds for flood defence and add it to our £1trillion+ debt.
But they aren't stumping up the money as proven by the amount stumped up for the Somerset Levels but i bet you the Thames Valley will be well looked after.
Well, "they" haven't let Dawlish fall into the sea yet. Quite the reverse. Has the massive amount of money and manpower pumped into the town's sea defences over the last few weeks passed you by?
I'll add another bit to my question above.
1.Who has, so far, paid for the work going on at the Dawlish and Teignmouth seawalls? NR?
2.Who has paid, so far, for the work taking place at the Somerset Levels and the Thames Valley? the EA?
3. Where have these agencies got this money from? Their own contingency funds? Central government top up? Other?
4. If the government stumps up the funds for flood defence and in doing so increases the national debt (see Burneside's post above) does that mean the government will need to borrow the money?
Its a bit like Royal Bank Of Scotland making a loss who pays for it well the goverment borrows the dosh for the shortfall and then the taxpayer pays the loan. Now in my minds eye all money being given to supporting loss making banks overseas aid etc etc should be redirected to securing property lives railway lines roads etc. Burnside i do realise that money is being spent but is enough money being spent Cameron was told that a £100 million was required to secure the levels from flooding his answer money is no object but the truth is he has given £10 mill and left it to other agencys to raise the money. Now the question is do we know what work NR would like to do to future proof the wall and line and how much they can actually do with the money available. The reason i ask this is they have spent £10 million in 10 years on maintainance so logicaly that wasnt enough so do they need £2 mill per year £5 mill per year should we not know these things or is this information withheld from the public and if so why?? Lynne has the same concerns because goverment ministers know what needs to be done but are now back pedaling why because they dont want to borrow to fix the problem.
Funding and the Somerset levels
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/06/uk-government-somerset-levels-20m-flood-plan
I would say the answer to all your questions is Yes.
I would assume that NR spend what it thinks is necessary to maintain the wall. This winter's storms have been exceptional by anyone's standards, whole swathes of the country have been devastated, Dawlish isn't alone in that respect, I don't think NR could have reasonably foreseen the extent of the damage we have witnessed . As for the government to now renege on the promise to spend sufficient funds in Somerset, that is a folly of their own making, and will likley cost the taxpayer dear in years to come.
I go back a bit and remember when a gang of railway workers arrived every morning for work and walked the wall any cracks little faults where dealt with daily they where the good old days of the railways. NR knew there was a weakness in the wall at the place it went they admitted as much on live TV a senior engineer said we knew the wall was vunerable where the walkway dropped down to sea level we will now highten the walkway as extra protection. The problem these days is we have a attitude of mend and make do we see it in everything the roads sea walls maitainance of public buildings is it money or a general attitude i was tought if a jobs worth doing its worth doing well its now all about money and profit.
er.......it seems the EU might have some dosh we could have. Trouble is though, we haven't applied for any. Why would that be then?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/us-eu-britain-floods-idUSBREA1B1KX20140212
update/update/update - see below
seems that since that reuters article was published we have indeed applied to the EU
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-501031/UK-government-115-million-flood-relief-payout-EU.html
trouble is, if you read the article carefully, the money is for damage caused by floods that happened last summer.
So........what about our government applying for some EU money for the floods that happened this winter?
Your post sounds a tad patronising to me. Did you mean it to do so? Not stressed at all! Agree lovely sunny day. Just asking questions .......
."i really must keep my thoughts to myself"
Will that be the end of your posts on here then Wondering? ( and yep folks that indeedy is yet another question - seems I just can't help asking them pesky ol' questions).
Coming back to the original post, did Dawlish actually make any bid for funding in the same way other SW towns have done?
Interesting question Neil. And here is another one. (Away from the original post I know but to do with infrastructure and funding nontheless). And my question is this: Given as we are in a time of austerity but nontheless needing to spend quite a chunk of public money on flood and coastal protection infrastructure, is now really the time for the government to potentially throw 30m quid of public money at this bridge project (see link) in, yep you've guessed it, London (again).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25671987
I feel sure the good people of the Somerset Levels and of Dawlish could think of plenty of ways to spend £30m.
Funding:
I was not born yesterday, though on these message boards we seem to have to much rudeness, circling of situations and people who are very obviously getting a kick from being spiteful and enjoy telling us how someone has upset them. In recent times can we all just take a step back, breath, enjoy this town that we choose to live in and look at what is currently being done to improve the town, it's recent situation and it's future.
May I suggest that if you don't feel enough is currently being done about the situation that you take the responsibility yourself of contacting those you feel should be doing more, should be offering more money excetra and taking it up with them.
Should we not be thankful for all that is currently being done to improve the situation? And thankful to all those who have supported it by any means?
Yes let's hope that more funding will become available,but right now everything that can be done is being done.