Double budget claim branded "spin" by opposition (From Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News)

Double budget claim branded "spin" by opposition

3:00pm Sunday 28th June 2009

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CLAIMS that county councillors will be able to hand out double the money they previously gave to local projects and groups have been slammed as “spin”.

The new Conservative administration at County Hall, in the first council meeting since elections earlier this month, said the community budget of each of its 58 members was to go up from £5,000 to £10,000.

But a LibDem opposition councillor says in reality the Tories are knocking £5,000 off the total amount each member can distribute in their division.

Cllr Christine Lawrence (Con), cabinet member for community, said the cash would come from the “amalgamation of the community budget scheme with the local initiatives budget”.

She added: “Supporting the many very worthy projects and organisations that operate in our communities is important to every county councillor.

“The increase in this budget reflects the council’s desire to invest and support a range of community initiatives at the most local level.”

But Cllr Ross Henley (LibDem) said that in reality the amount councillors previously had to distribute in their divisions had dropped from £15,000 to £10,000.

He added: “Sadly this is a cut by £5,000 in the amount of money each of us can now distribute in grants to help and support local groups and organisations.”

Under community budgets, councillors made grants to local organisations such as sports clubs and charities, while the local initiatives budget were for projects linked to council priorities.

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