Kent Police has become the latest organisation to reveal that it has invested in Icelandic banks.

The force has said it has £11million on deposit but the banks' collapse shouldn't cause any problems in the immediate future.

In a statement, Kent Police said: "Kent County Council has invested £11.1million of Kent Police Authority funds into Icelandic banks.

"This money is a small proportion of our total assets and there are no short-term liquidity problems for the Force."

Councils in Kent who have tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash locked into Icelandic banks face a potentially lengthy wait before knowing if it is at risk.

Ministers have refused to offer a guarantee to bail out local authorities by promising to guarantee deposits made by town halls.

Kent County Council has £50million tied up with Icelandic banks and several other district councils have sums ranging from £1million to £6million invested.

Local government leaders met with treasury officials and ministers yesterday to discuss the crisis, after which ministers stopped short of giving councils a blanket assurance to protect all their deposits.

Instead, they said individual councils would be treated on a case-by-case basis, depending on how they might be affected. Although KCC has the highest sum invested of any council in the country, County Hall leaders have insisted there is no immediate threat to services.

Local government minister John Healey said authorities were not the same as individual investors.

"Councils are in a different position as they are much more informed investors; they have professional advisers and staff and they are well-informed.

They have a duty to the public purse in making these investments."

Cllr Nick Chard (Con), KCC cabinet member for finance, said he understood why the Government wanted time to assess the situation but said there was no reason why councils should not have the same protection as individual investers.

He said: "I am not surprised but I am disappointed.

"We have argued that we should have parity with private investors and we want the Government to treat us equally and will continue to argue for that."

He revealed that KCC would have been forced to pay a financial penalty had it chosen to withdraw its funds before its agreements with the banks had ended.

"If we had taken out the money, we would have been subject to quite a severe penalty. They are timed deposits."