Residents could be required to pay higher rates to fund functions that were previously carried out by the Department of Infrastructure, one local authority has suggested.

Updates to the highway maintenance charter means local authorities could be forced to provide snow-clearing services on top of gully and street sweeping.

The proposals would be introduced by early 2024 but government hasn’t revealed who will front the cost.

The clerk of Peel Commissioners, Derek Sewell, is worried the move could cause issues for all local authorities across the island.

He said: ‘Our commissioners are supportive of carrying out these functions locally because they can usually respond quicker and it enhances some of the work that we already do.

‘So as long as there’s a clear understanding of what those minimum standards are and who’s paying for them, then that needs to be funded by the department because ultimately the functions are carried out under a delegation rather than a transfer of functions.

‘If we don’t perform the functions adequately, the department under the legislation would pull those back into into the DoI.

‘They would be responsible for carrying out those duties, and therefore they they should have funding to underake them.

‘We don’t know what that funding arrangement is.

‘It’s been suggested that some of it, potentially all of it, could have to be funded from the rates rather than from central taxation and road tax. We’re currently at the stage of it being a draft and the consulting on it still.

‘We were told last week that the desire was to get it in place for 2024.

‘But obviously any any funding mechanism for that would have to be sorted out very quickly because the commissioners usually start thinking about certain rates in October for the following year. Then the funding mechanism needs to be clearly understood by by the local authorities and by the public.’