£19M For Lewisham At Risk Under Government Plans

12.00.00am GMT Wed 31st Oct 2007

Forest Hill Lib Dem councillor Alex Feakes, who chairs Lewisham Council's Public Accounts Select Committee, has written to the government protesting about proposals to change the way councils are funded. The proposals would reclassify Lewisham as an outer London borough for some calculations, and could see Lewisham lose up to £19m, or over 11%, of its total grant from the government.

"A stroke of a pen could see Lewisham lose millions of pounds of government funding, simply because Whitehall thinks that wages and living costs here are comparable with outer London" commented Mr Feakes.

"Losing this money would be equivalent to scrapping the entire Environment Department in Lewisham, meaning no waste collection, recycling or street cleaning."

"In addition, Lewisham has been losing out on grant money for many years because the government has been undercounting the borough's population."

"I've written on behalf of the committee to the Department for Communities and Local Government asking for an explanation of why they think such major changes in Lewisham's funding are justified, and setting out our strong opposition to the proposals."