SERVICES may have to be cut across Uttlesford as the Government has refused to reimburse the £45,000 the district council spent on responding to the arrival of Lebanese evacuees. Around 600 British nationals arrived at Stansted Airport on three Government

SERVICES may have to be cut across Uttlesford as the Government has refused to reimburse the £45,000 the district council spent on responding to the arrival of Lebanese evacuees.

Around 600 British nationals arrived at Stansted Airport on three Government chartered planes from the Akrotiri Airport in Cyprus on the weekend of July 22.

And Dunmow's MP is angry council tax payers have been left footing the bill after Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said Uttlesford District Council should have had reserves to meet the cost.

"She may think £45,000 is a trivial sum of money, but she refuses to acknowledge the expenditure arose directly from a decision made by the Government," he said.

Those 64 evacuees who needed to stay in the district were put up in the Hilton Hotel before being taken to the University of Essex in Colchester.

They stayed there for four weeks before being accommodated in Saffron Walden, Stansted and Great Dunmow by September 4.

UDC leader, Cllr Mark Gayler, said the money would have to come from the council's reserves and could affect services.

"However we have been badly let down by the Government.

The evacuation was a Government decision, so they should have provided the funding to support it.

"It's money we've spent that we won't be getting back so it may have an impact on council services but it's very difficult to say how as it's one of a number of budget issues which will have to be considered," he said.