RECHAR-AID FOR COAL MINING AREAS

That this House agrees with the Secretary of State for the Environment that the Government's present arrangements 'fail to ensure that local authorities and other bodies are able to spend the European Regional Development fund receipts to which they are entitled' and that they leave 'the RECHAR programme and other future ERDF receipts in jeopardy'; in view of this, calls on the Prime Minister to withdraw his statement in a letter to the honourable Member for Midlothian that 'the Commission are misrepresenting the position, and we do not accept that they have any basis for their attitude' and to accept the analysis of the Secretary of State for the Environment that 'the present arrangements are no longer tenable' and that 'the need for change is now pressing'; and demands that Her Majesty's Government takes urgent action now to ensure that all the RECHAR funds owing to coalfield areas are made available to them.