Bristol City Council prepares for post-Brexit 'threats'

Bristol City Council has a £460,000 Brexit contingency fund

A council has set aside tens of thousands of pounds to cope with post-Brexit protests and IT failures after Britain leaves the European Union.

Bristol City Council has £460,000 of funding reserved for contingency plans, with £115,000 allocated for "threats" in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

These include "civil contingencies" such as reacting to any protests and extra security at summer events.

The provisions have been laid out in a report ahead of a meeting on Monday.

With the UK set to leave the European Union on March 29, the council has rated its preparedness as "amber" and agreed an extra £140,000 for more staff to deal with the possible fall-out.

Monday's report reveals more has been set aside for extra staff needed for civil, security, regulatory and health and social care "contingencies", the Local Democracy Reporting Service has said.

'Provider failure'

It says the funding has been agreed "in principle" but how the money is actually spent could change "given the dynamic nature of the issue".

More funding would likely be needed if "certain issues manifested".

This includes:

• £20,000 for "civil contingencies" such as reacting to any protests

• £25,000 for extra security at summer events

• £45,000 in case of "national database loss" for staff for "regulatory contingency" or "mutual aid"

• £50,000 is reserved for staff needed to administer emergency health and social care in the event of "provider failure"

The council's director of policy, strategy and partnerships, Tim Borrett, said the plans were based on a no-deal scenario.

"The suggestions reflect potential areas where we may need to spend money over and above what we could manage from existing budgets or by reprioritising our work and staff capacity.

"Because of this, the list is not by any means reflective of all of the potential impacts and work we would need to do in a no-deal scenario."