Angus Council has lodged a £6.9 million claim for government emergency help after the devastation of Storm Babet.
But it is only an interim bid for support from the Bellwin scheme and a final figure could be higher.
The multi-million pound claim emerged during this week’s Angus Council budget-setting meeting.
The Bellwin scheme was set up to help councils with the immediate cost of tackling emergencies and natural disasters.
It is there to reimburse money spent in the immediate aftermath of a major incident.
Hundreds of people had to be rescued from their homes when Brechin bore the brunt of Storm Babet in October.
And dozens of families are still living elsewhere because of damage sustained by properties in the River Street area.
Council finance director Ian Lorimer told councillors: “There is a two-stage claim, an interim claim and a final claim.
“We submitted our interim claim about ten days ago.
“That is still being considered by the Scottish Government, but £6.9m was the interim claim figure.”
The council revealed the claim breakdown to be:
- Infrastructure & Environment Service (Roads) – £6.497m
- Infrastructure & Environment Service (Other) – £0.139m
- Other Services – £0.247m
- Insurance excess – £0.027m
The final claim deadline is June 18.
Emergency costs only
However, Mr Lorimer has already warned councillors the scheme will not pick up the tab for all the damage caused to Angus infrastructure.
Bellwin guidance states: “The scheme is intended to reimburse the cost of local authority actions taken in the immediate phase of an emergency, not those taken as part of the recovery phase.
“The scheme is not intended to fund longer term repairs or costs.
“For the most part actions not taken within one month would be unlikely to be considered immediate.”
The Bellwin window was extended to four months for Angus following the disaster.
But in December, Mr Lorimer warned the scheme would be unlikely to pay for knock-on impacts on rural roads.
It came after complaints about the deterioration of diversion routes because of the closure of bridges at Brechin and North Water near Montrose.
Council recovery fund questions
The official also responded to a claim by Angus opposition leader Derek Wann a pledge of seven-figure council funding had been a “throwaway promise…to save face”.
“Funding promised by the council leader, a £10 million scheme for those whose lives were upended by Storm Babet, may as well have been a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” he said.
Mr Lorimer told the Arbroath Conservative there are still commitments in the council’s finances for Babet recovery.
The budget-setting decision, he said, had changed the make up of where they would come from.
“There is still £5m of general reserve contingency fund available,” he said.
“And there is £5.3m of capital contingency available so those would be the two sums of money we would go to first in the event of further expenditure being required.”
We previously revealed how former council chief executive Margo Williamson was forced to push the Scottish Government for support weeks after the storm.
First Minister Humza Yousaf visited Brechin just days after the disaster.
But Mrs Williamson later sent an angry email to the Scottish Government after a two-week silence over pleas for help from Holyrood.
Conversation