Residents will feel the pain of a “disgraceful” decision to cut a £900,000 community grant scheme in half, councillors were warned today.
Members of North Yorkshire Council have agreed to reduce the amount given to individual councillors to distribute in their areas from £10,000 to £5,000 a year.
The reduction in the locality budgets was voted through despite opposition councillors claiming the move would cause damage to a range of community groups, charities, parish and town councils and voluntary organisations which receive funding.
The decision was taken as councillors agreed the authority’s budget for 2025/26 which includes a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax.
Urging councillors to keep the locality budget at its current level, Hipswell and Colburn Green Party councillor Kevin Foster said: “It’s your residents that put you here and they want your help. You’re reducing your ability to do that.”
Independent Councillor Lindsay Burr, who represents Malton, described the reduction as a “backwards and cruel step to all communities of North Yorkshire”.
Councillor Tony Randerson, who represents the Eastfield division of Scarborough for the Social Justice Party, said: “This locality budget is an absolute godsend. I live in the world and I see the deprivation in my ward.
“It’s akin to Thatcher the Milk Snatcher in my opinion.
“It’s disgraceful, it’s not warranted and I will be supporting the amendment before us.”
Also criticising the reduction, independent councillor, Sam Cross, who represents Filey, said: “The people who are going to feel the pain are their residents.”
Several councillors pointed out that before the local government reorganisation in 2023 in North Yorkshire, communities could benefit from small grants from both county councillors and district and borough councillors, meaning they had already lost out.
It was also claimed at the meeting that the grants were used by parish and town councils to provide services that North Yorkshire Council no longer delivered.
But speaking in favour of the reduction, executive member Councillor Keane Duncan, highlighted some of the items the funding had paid for in recent years.
He said: “As taxpayers look through the immense catalogue of locality budget spending, all £5m of it, they might be in a state of bemusement.
“£500 on bird-watching binoculars, £1,000 on knitting wool, £1,500 on a circus entertainer, £500 on Pilates classes, subsidised trips to London, Frankfurt, Canada, even Barnsley.”
Cllr Duncan also highlighted a photo on social media of Colburn Town FC wearing a new kit with ‘Kevin Foster’s Locality Budget’ on the front, with Cllr Foster standing with the team with a ‘Vote Kevin Foster’ placard.
Cllr Foster later told the meeting he had paid for the kit out of his own money.
Upper Dales councillor Yvonne Peacock, who also supported the cut, said members had to “live in the real world”.
She added: “We still have £5,000. We can do a huge amount of good with £5,000 and I will be doing that in my area but we must continue to be very, very careful with our residents’ money.”
Councillors eventually voted in favour of making the cut to the locality budget.
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