Critics have branded Canterbury City Council “extraordinarily complacent” after the authority admitted it has no plans in place for Brexit.

The authority has come under fire for conceding it has made no “formal preparations” ahead of Britain leaving the EU in March.

But council leader Simon Cook believes the uncertainty surrounding Brexit has made it unclear how it will impact the district.

As a result, he says the decision has been taken to focus resources on “known issues” – such as refuse collection and temporary housing – instead.

“We don’t, at present, know what Brexit will be,” he said.

“We have no formal preparations in place because it’s unclear as to what we’re preparing for and what we can do to mitigate anything.

“Even if we knew precisely what the Brexit deal looked like it would be very difficult to get our crystal ball out and see what exactly will happen.”

The Times has reported that government ministers have been told by mandarins that plans for a no-deal Brexit should begin to be implemented by the end of the month.

In June, Dover District Council set up a taskforce to address issues arising from Britain’s departure from the EU.

In addition, Kent County Council has been drawing up Brexit impact assessments.

But Cllr Cook believes there is not the same necessity to plan for it in Canterbury.

“In places like Dover I can completely understand why they have because whatever happens with Brexit something will have to be done around the port. We don’t have anything like that,” he said.

“Within the remit of what we do, we haven’t identified any particular things that would transpire because of Brexit.

“I think our residents will not thank us for spending valuable time and money planning for something we simply do not know.”

Wincheap councillor Nick Eden-Green (Lib Dem) believes the district will be “significantly affected” by either a hard or a soft Brexit and, therefore, argues the council should be drawing up plans to mitigate the impact it could have on businesses and infrastructure.

“I find it extraordinarily complacent [that the council has no plans in place],” he said.

“I also find it quite extraordinary that Simon Cook appears to say ‘because we don’t know what the outcome of the current shambles is going to be that no plans are going to be made’.

“Yes, we don’t know the exact shape of what the deal will be, but you have to plan for different scenarios.

“Part of the council’s role is to make plans for the future and it doesn’t take very many people or much time to sit down and think about various future scenarios.”

Cllr Eden-Green added the council should speak to Kent and Canterbury Hospital, the University of Kent and businesses to gauge their views on Brexit.

He also says the local authority needs to formulate a plan on how to deal with feared lorry disruption at the Port of Dover.

“It should be looking at the lorry parking we’ve already got in the district,” he continued.

“Maybe arrangements will have to be made to make them more formal parking areas or to close them off.

“It seems that if they are going to be held at the border, then there need to be arrangements made for them. Not having any seems complacent.”

However, Cllr Cook insists the council does not have the resources to “plan for every eventuality”.

“Saying ‘we’ve got a plan therefore everything will be OK’ is being needlessly certain about things,” he added.

“We’re not being completely blasé about it – we’re obviously keeping a watching brief on everything.

“We don’t know what the future will bring, but whatever it does, we will be ready.”