THE Haslemere organisation set up to encourage more shoppers and visitors to the town is set to receive a £10,000 boost from the town council.
The recommendation to grant the Haslemere Initiative almost half Haslemere Town Council's total grant allocation for the year of £22,500, was made by members of the grants panel at their March meeting.
The one-off grant, if agreed by the town's finance and general purposes committee at their meeting last night (Thursday) will help market the town and surrounding villages.
The grants panel is made up of 12 town councillors, including Michael Foster and the chairman of the sub-visitor committee, Michael Barnes. As town councillors, they are part of the Haslemere Initiative committee and declared an interest in the initiative, but were allowed to vote along with the six other town councillors at the meeting.
The meeting, heard in secret session, questioned representatives of the Haslemere Initiative including Val Harris and its chairman Peter Purchon. Among the costs involved in proposals to give Haslemere a higher profile was placing the contents of the recent visitors' guide on its web site.
Tthat grant allocation, from more than £31,000 of grant applications received from local organisations to be considered by the panel at its last meeting, has sparked criticism of the way the panel operates.
Although some members of the panel have called for the meetings to continue to be held behind closed doors, to allow town councillors to "ask probing and sometimes embarrassing questions which not be practicable in public forum," a former town mayor has again questioned the need for secrecy.
Liberal Democrat councillor Mark Lelliott, who voted for the Haslemere Initiative grant, told The Herald he disagreed with the confidential meetings.
"I don't see any organisation that we are going to ask questions of being embarrassed about talking - they are public organisations and have to publish their financial results at an agm which are in the public domain," he said.
"They have to answer to the public and we should be able to discuss grants in an open forum," he declared.
Mr Lelliott was also critical of the Tory-controlled town council's grants policy. He was unhappy about several smaller organisations which had requested grants but were turned down by the panel.
"It is our job to encourage and support these organisations. The fact they they have got some money put aside is not a reason to deny them a grant."
Grants panel chairman James Mackie said confidentiality was "a good thing. I think it is right that the preliminary discussions are confidential. It allows people to say exactly what they want without fear of political pressure.
"Once the recommendations are made, they are in the open," he added.
But he agreed that revenue grants posed a problem for the town council, with the possibility of draining the resources and being left with no funds for pump-priming grants.