HASLEMERE'S struggling charitable organisations and facilities may have to continue to look for new sources of funding after the town council refused to plug the growing gap.

Town councillors said that they feared they would be opening "Pandora's box" if they agreed to automatically help key organisations meet running costs. Councillors said that it was up to Waverley Borough Council to foot the bill and organisations to do all they can to support themselves.

However there is still hope that some long- term help may be on the way with a comprehensive review set to be drawn up to look at the issue in more depth.

The problem surrounding the funding of key organisations and facilities in the town, such as Haslemere Hall and the town's museum, was put under the spotlight by the town council's finance and general purposes committee last Thursday.

In recent years, organisations in the town have began to struggle to meet running costs and have been forced to dig deep into their reserves.

Waverley Borough Council traditionally hands out revenue grants to a large number of organisations to help meet running costs but massive financial pressures have forced it to tighten its belt and limit the amount of cash it hands out.

However this has been to the cost of a number of Haslemere organisations which have seen their grant support cut.

On top of this there was anger that organisations in other parts of the borough, especially Farnham, are receiving significantly higher grants, sparking allegations of bias. However this has been denied by the borough council.

One possible solution to the growing problem would be for Haslemere Town Council to plug the funding gap and give revenue grants to some organisations on top of the grants it currently awards for special projects and specific items.

Town and parish councils in other parts of the country give out revenue grants to organisations as a matter of course but this is not Haslemere Town Council's policy and recently it carried out a poll at the annual town meeting asking residents what they thought. However the results were far from conclusive with only a handful of people taking part, leaving town councillors to draw their own conclusions.

The opinion of the majority of town councillors at last week's meeting was that revenue funding was the responsibility of the borough council.

"I think that we should be appealing to Waverley," Peter Isherwood said. "I don't think that we should be doing Waverley's job." He was supported by Fay Foster who also described revenue funding as "Waverley's job".

"My heart says yes but my head says no," she said. "We cannot justify it to our tax payers." Meanwhile Roger Starr warned that the town council could open "Pandora's box" if it stepped in to bridge the gap.

James Mackie said that the town council should do all it could to put pressure on Waverley into making sure that Haslemere gets its fair share of the borough's cash.

"I think that really we should continue to try and get the same sort of level of funding from Waverley as other halls such as the Memorial Hall (in Farnham) and also the museum which does require more support."

However this view was not universal. Barbara Jeffers said that she was not opposed to providing some sort of financial help and pointed out that if the town council dug into its pockets it could encourage Waverley to do the same.

"We could get some leverage with Waverley if we offer to give 'X' amount to organisations which will be a percent of 'Y' which is given by Waverley," she suggested.

"If we say we will give a smaller percentage of a grant it will show our support and they can show their support to that organisation with a reasonable sized-grant."

Michael Biddiscombe also pointed out some organisations which do not charge for their services "have very little prospect of raising the funding they need" without help.

Town mayor Michael Dover described the issue as "emotional" and said that it was right for the council to see if it can do more to help. However he said that without an overwhelming consensus from residents the council could not agree to automatically fill the funding void.

Instead he suggested that the town council work together with the borough and county councils as well as a number of the town's charitable organisations to find a way forward in the future.

"We can't base this decision on emotion," he said.

"I propose that we get actively involved and construct a paper looking at all of this." His proposal was unanimously agreed by the committee.