Council underspend to be used to help Doncaster flood victims and to improve borough's leisure facilities and CCTV network

Elected mayor Ros Jones said the council was on course for a £1.3 million underspend at the end of December 2019 and the money would be reinvested.

DMBC is set to increase numbers in the community teams and early help services who will support flood resilience arrangements at a cost of £300,000.

Funds of £500,000 each are also being committed to replacing the council’s CCTV equipment and resources to support investment in smaller leisure facilities.

The mayor also addressed the recent flooding and thanked all staff who have been working around the clock to help residents.

Mayor Jones also commended the ‘sterling leadership’ of chief executive Damian Allen and that the council would ‘continue to press Government’ for more funding in terms of flood resources.

On reinvesting the underspend, Mayor Jones said: “We need to use this one of money in an appropriate way - assisting people who have had their lives turned upside down by the floods and actually ensuring we’re creating a safer place through the upgrade of CCTV gives people that reassurance out there.

“This money will go some way in helping people improve their health putting the additional resources into our smaller leisure facilities which are greatly in need of renovation.”

On the flood response, the mayor added: “The council and our partners responded professionally and effectively to support residents in our communities affected by the recent flooding and I would like to thank all our staff and volunteers for the sterling work they have done.

“Let’s not forget, we’ve been on alert so many times now people are working around the clock.

“The cost to the council is currently over £600,000, some we will gain back but there will be much more going when we have staff out there on call because we still don’t know where we’re going to be in a month’s time from the previous flooding.

“We will continue to press the Government for all the funding that we can.”