Victims of this summer's catastrophic flooding could miss out again on compensation, despite a promise of £112m in EU cash, according to Oxfordshire CC. Council leader, Cllr Keith Mitchell, said the county had already been let down once by a government promise of financial help, which failed to materialise after the devastating floods. Now, the local authorities are sceptical about any fresh hopes, despite flood minister, John Healey, confirming emergency funds from Brussels. He said: ‘Following our disappointment that PM Gordon Brown's promise to fund our flooding costs in full were meaningless and have left Oxfordshire councils with a £3.3m bill, any prospect of support from Europe is welcome. ‘I hope we may be forgiven some scepticism, however, if we approach bidding for some of the £112m of European cash with caution. ‘It is not clear whether it is to cover what we spent in saving life, limb and property, and which the Government will not refund, or whether it is available to fund relief schemes for Abingdon, Banbury, Oxford and Witney which suffered so badly.' The leaders of all six local authorities in Oxfordshire have already joined forces to lobby for more cash to meet the shortfall. The six said they faced a bill of more than £4m, but could only claim less than £1m from insurers. Mr Healey announced last week an application for money from the EU Solidarity Fund had been accepted. He said: ‘I am pleased to say the commissioner, Danuta Hübner, confirmed that she had accepted our application and would recommend the UK received around €160m to her fellow 26 commissioners, who together will take the final decision.'
