There's something fishy going on......

Last week the Department for Local Government and Communities (DeCLog) announced grants totalling £100M “to boost to council coffers as they help communities through the credit crunch.”

Harlow got (drum roll please!) £6,016 awarded, which frankly is an insult to Harlow and discriminates against the town.

The average amount going to all district councils in Essex is over £75,000, with Chelmsford receiving £190,000 and Epping Forest £165,000. Harlow is suffering just as much as other towns in the recession, so why are we losing out?

Everyone knows we have had to make to some very difficult decisions in setting our budget this year, and if this grant was the boost the government says it is things could have been very different.

Calculation of this grant looks very complex with plenty of room for manipulation. I think there has probably been some skulduggery within the Government. As to why, I can only speculate but previous LABGI awards to a Labour controlled council were very much higher. I wonder if that has anything do with it?