EUROPE looks set to become a live issue in Halton this week as the borough learns whether its access to the communal crock of gold that is EU funding will be cut back.

The Government is set to announce its new definitions of Assisted Areas (AAs) on Thursday morning, and Halton Council is worried that it could be about to lose its status in the redistributive scramble.

Indications are that the number of AAs identified by the government is to be slashed by up to one third.

Assisted Areas, nominated by the Government, attract substantial levels of European funding aimed at boosting the prosperity of depressed and declining industrial heartlands.

Coupled with a fight to keep Halton's Objective Two status for EU redistribution - which also aims to give succour to poor areas - the wrong decision could have huge ramifications for economic development here.

Objective Two status is being reviewed in the light of probable EU expansion to the East.

The borough's chances of getting money could be compromised by a neglect of its true poverty.

There are fears that Halton is about to be grouped with relatively prosperous Warrington in a Travel to Work area, thereby performing the bureaucratic equivalent of cosmetic surgery on the true extent of this borough's problems.

Halton would rather be considered as a kindred area to Liverpool and Merseyside, which experiences much the same problems of deprivation.

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