Warwickshire will be 'one of the worst-affected parts of country' after Brexit says county councillor

Cllr Keith Kondakor (Green Weddington) was responding to a report detailing how Warwickshire County Council was preparing for Brexit and which highlighted problems facing various industries.

He told this week’s [TUE] full council meeting: “We are in a right mess. The report is really good in highlighting some of the areas where we could have problems but we shouldn’t really be in this place - we don’t know where we are.

“This is a big problem for Warwickshire because we are highly dependent on the motor industry, we are also dependent on the farming industry and we have a lot of people working in the care industry with our aging population. We are are really one of the worst affected parts of the country.

“If we have quite a hard Brexit then we could find the cost of materials will go up and therefore some of our businesses with large contracts could fail. This is a worrying time.”

The report highlighted the impact on key sectors and also how it might affect the council’s own services including the increase in demand for trading standards.

Another part of the document looked at how Warwickshire residents would cope including the impact on the homeless and most vulnerable who would be hardest hit should there be any price increases.

County council preparations have been helped by a central government grant of £262,500 and Mark Ryder, the strategic director for communities, has been appointed Brexit lead officer.

Aside from the financial pressures that Brexit could create, council leader Cllr Izzy Seccombe (Con Stour and the Vale) said she was hoping for a change in attitude once the Brexit issue had been resolved.

She explained: “One of the huge disappointments - and that’s an understatement of words - is that the civility in public life has been lost and I think that is a really detrimental step. I do hope that when we get through Brexit it will return and we respect people’s opinions even if we don’t agree with them.

“Respect seems to have gone out of the window and that’s one of the biggest losses.”