Worcester councillor asks to make use of Ukraine money for canine mess

A councillor has requested why ringfenced money meant to assist Ukrainian refugees can’t be spent on cleansing up canine poo and litter as a substitute.

Alan Amos, of the Conservative Party, posed the query to joint Worcester City Council chief Lynn Denham throughout a council assembly on 26 March.

But he was knowledgeable the transfer can be “wholly inappropriate” and sure illegal.

Mr Amos’ feedback come after the council’s communities committee determined in January to allocate £86,515 over three years in the direction of making Worcester a City of Sanctuary.

The title of City of Sanctuary would recognise Worcester’s tradition of solidarity and inclusiveness.

Birmingham, Bromsgrove & Redditch, Malvern and Herefordshire are simply a number of the areas that already maintain the title of City of Sanctuary.

During the assembly, Mr Amos mentioned: “Last week a big bin on the entrance to Pitmaston Park had not been emptied for thus lengthy that luggage of canine poo have been mendacity on high of it and throughout it.

“When I requested why this had occurred I used to be informed the 2 assortment autos had each damaged down, so does this not show town’s cleansing and litter budgets have completely no resilience inside them when a minimum of this £90,000 might be used to purchase one other assortment van?”

Ms Denham responded: “I’m not conscious of the amount of canine poo inside councillor Amos’ ward.”

She added the funding for the City of Sanctuary mission can be supplied by the Homes for Ukraine reserve grant and the Dispersed Accommodation grant.

Both grants are supplied to the council by the federal government and each are ringfenced.

“It’s not funded from the council’s core funds and it’ll not create a income stress,” defined Ms Denham.

“Spending money on avenue cleaning from the Homes for Ukraine grant or Dispersed Accommodation grant can be wholly inappropriate use of that grant and one that will possible be illegal.”