§ Mr. Parryasked the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to the answer of 19 November 1985, Official Report, column 148, what further representations have been received from relevant local authorities on the future of county funded voluntary organisations on Merseyside following abolition of the county councils, in the light of his Department's letter to them indicating in more detail how the transitional grants will be allocated; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir George YoungThe Merseyside co-ordinating committee of local authority representatives has met my 285W noble Friend the Minister of State to press its view that transitional grant should be made available to help local authorities on Merseyside support voluntary bodies operating countywide. These views have been supported by letters from individual authorities.
The transitional grant scheme is designed to help individual authorities take on support for voluntary bodies operating primarily on a local basis whose funding is affected by abolition. Countywide voluntary bodies can look to all the authorities in an abolition area for funding, and authorities can contribute either through a collective grant-giving scheme, or on an individual basis. The RSG settlement has ensured that successor authorities have access to all the resources the county would have had, and we have no proposals to treat Merseyside authorities on a more favourable basis than authorities elsewhere in the country.