As Boris Johnson continues his efforts to negotiate a fresh deal over Brexit, closer to home, there are more rumblings of discontent over the latest round of money being allocated to councils to prepare.

Kent councils fared relatively well compared to others and are certainly not complaining in public about their allocations.

But some council leaders have questioned the methodology used by the government to calculate the sums and have suggested it got its homework wrong.

The Liberal Democrat leader of Plymouth City Council is among the disgruntled and has questioned why Thanet has qualified for one of the enhanced allocations when it has no working port and no ferries operating.

“We are a port that is going to be bringing in medical supplies. We have not been designated as a strategic port but the government has given hundreds of thousands of pounds to Ramsgate which has no ferry service but they get the cash and we don't,” he said.

The same sentiment was expressed by the leader of Portsmouth City Council, who said: “The government has been happy to give money to ferry companies that have no ferries, that was £20m, but they have not helped local authorities get ready.”

They have a point. The government was heavily criticised when it offered a contract to a company to provide extra ferry capacity from Ramsgate to Ostend in the event that other ports such as Dover were overburdened.

“The government has been happy to give money to ferry companies that have no ferries, that was £20m, but they have not helped local authorities get ready...” Portsmouth City Council

The problem was that the company awarded the contract had no ferries and the port of Ramsgate at the time was not able to accept them.

The company involved, Seaborne Freight, eventually withdrew from the contract after a major investor pulled out.

As a result of the way the government had procured these contracts, it faced a legal challenge from Eurotunnel - which ended up with a £33m out of court settlement.

It is a moot point but had the bungling over these contracts not led to a huge payout, the government may have been able to provide councils with rather more generous sums.

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