East Ayrshire Council to seek Storm Eowyn cash as cost of damaging storm adds up

East Ayrshire Council will have to fork out at least £660k for emergency work after the damage wreaked by Storm Eowyn before it can get financial assistance.

Cabinet was told that there was significant damage caused by last weekend’s storm, but the scale of the emergency meant that the cost was still far from being determined.

Officers and councillors also hit out at ‘unfair criticism’ around the damage caused to the Big Top, which was holding events such as the pantomime, while the Palace Theatre is closed.

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East Ayrshire Leisure Trust is now looking at alternative venues for those events that would otherwise be cancelled. Officers are also confident that the damage will not result in additional cost to the council.

Chief Finance Officer, Joe McLachlan, told councillors that there was funding available from the Scottish Government via the Bellwin Scheme.

The UK Government states that 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.

It states: “The scheme is not intended to fund longer term repairs or costs. This is reflected in the eligible spending period of one month from the date when a qualifying incident comes to an end. For the most part actions not taken within one month would be unlikely to be considered immediate.”

Council Leader Douglas Reid asked for an update on the situation at Wednesday’s Cabinet.

Mr McLachlan responded: “On Monday I contacted colleagues in the Scottish government to say that the council is currently quantifying the damage and the costs that are likely to be incurred and that we seek we put government on notice that we may be applying to government for a request to activate the Bellwin Scheme.

“Bellwin is a scheme where we can seek recompense for costs due to, for example, storm damages.

“But we have to incur [costs] of 0.2% of our revenue budget before we can make a claim.

“So we have to incur cost of £660,000 after which we can put those additional costs on a claim to government.”

He acknowledged that the rules around the scheme were ‘fairly stringent’.

Facilities boss Andrew Kennedy added: “Obviously there’s been significant damage and impact of the storm last week and we continue to manage the recovery of that.

“There are a number of buildings [damaged] and we did have a couple schools closed on Monday due to the the power shortages rather than the damage to the buildings. But there are a number of buildings that that we have started to repair.

“A number of the repairs will be covered by insurance as well so that balances between things we can claim on insurance and things we can maybe put through in terms of billing. We’re continuing to work on that.”

Cllr Reid asked for more detail around the Big Top at Ayrshire Athletics Arena.

He said: “I understand that the pantomime and other events have been quite successful and managed to recoup some of the losses that we’ve had.

“I think there’s been some unjust criticism in terms of the Big Top in terms of our exposure there. I think most of that will be recouped and the events that have been cancelled are going to be rescheduled

“I know that, from discussion with members of trust, that the time to disassemble the big top was four days, although I understand many of the items of value were taken out.”

Mr McLachlan replied: “I think we’ve got some undue criticism. Anneke [Freel, Head of East Ayrshire Leisure] and her team were in constant dialogue with the owners of the Big Top before Friday and gave an option to come in and take remedial action before. But at the same time, we also removed items that were in the Big Top in advance of the storm coming in.

“The leisure trust is in negotiation with the owner and are looking at the terms and conditions of the contract. I think they are fairly relaxed about the position in terms of the issues and damage to the Big Top.

“Anneke is also keen to find another location, recognising that this has been financially beneficial, both in terms of the pantomime and other acts that were to follow.

“They’re thinking out of the box on this and I am hoping that they’ll come back fairly soon with a resolution so that events can take place and so they can recoup the costs and produce income for the trust.”

Cllr Reid added that the events also brought people into Kilmarnock and their absence would be felt by local businesses.