Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

moved Amendment No. 309:"After Clause 60, insert the following new clause—" ““EMERGENCY FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE (1)   Amend section 155(4) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (c. 42) (authorities eligible for emergency financial assistance) as follows. (2)   After paragraph (h) insert— ““(i)   a National Park authority; or (j)   the Broads Authority.”” (3)   Omit ““or”” preceding paragraph (h).”” The noble Baroness said: The Bellwin scheme, which is operated by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, is the means by which the Government provide additional financial support to local authorities. Under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, the Secretary of State may establish a scheme of assistance where, in the words of Section 155 of that Act,"““an emergency or disaster occurs involving destruction of or danger to life or property and, as a result, one or more local authorities incur expenditure on, or in connection with, the taking of immediate action . . . to safeguard life or property, or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience, in their area or among its inhabitants””." Section 155(4) lists the categories of local authority that may be covered by such a scheme. County councils, which managed the national parks at the time of the 1989 legislation, are on the list of eligible authorities. However, in 1997—1996 in Wales—responsibility for the parks passed to independent national park authorities, but these new bodies were not added to the list of eligible bodies. That treatment reflected a view that only charging or major precepting authorities—in other words, those authorities with a separate formula spending share under the RSG system—should be eligible. It also reflects the reality that national park authorities will rarely be responsible for the emergency phase of any incident. But it has created the potential anomaly that an incident in a national park which could have attracted Bellwin support before the advent of independent national park authorities might not do so now. Attention was drawn to this by the flash floods of last June in North Yorkshire; the North York Moors National Park Authority will receive some Bellwin funding, but it has had to go through the county council to do so. Amendment No. 309 and consequential Amendment No. 365, by adding national park authorities to the list of eligible authorities, will remove this potential anomaly, in effect restoring the pre-1997 position. I feel, having moved this amendment and spoken to the other amendments, that I really ought to declare an interest, as I was a member of the county council at the time. I beg to move.