Major organisations in Petersfield have had their grants slashed by Petersfield Town Council following months of secret talks.

None of the big organisations will get what they wanted and could be forced to cut

back services because of the reduced pay-outs.

Some even saw their applications halved as grant funding from the council was cut back to a bare minimum.

The CitizenÕs Advice Bureau had asked the council for £9,500 to help pay for the vital service. But they will only get £8,500 and Liz Mullinger, manager of the Petersfield bureau, said the news had come as a blow.

ÒIt will cause us problems especially next year with the increases in National Insurance. This is the third year running they will give us the same amount.

ÒThe fact is they are technically reducing our grant. A conservative estimate is a 5% reduction when we are faced with increasing costs.

ÒIt is going to be exceedingly difficult and our budget is tight. We cannot contemplate any increase in services if our grant has been reduced.Ó

£13,000 will go to Petersfield Market Town Initiative (PMTI), £7,500 less than they had requested.

The money will be split with £6,500 going to PMTI and £6,500 allocated to the Christmas lights.

Trevor Boyden, director of PMTI, said that he was pleased with the support that the town council had shown to PMTI but added that the money for the Christmas Lights was not nearly enough.

Mr Boyden said that £6,500 would only cover half the costs of putting up Christmas lights in the town.

ÒYou get comments about the Christmas lights in Petersfield and it is because

we are not paying as

much as other towns. £6,500 is living in Noddy land,Ó he said.

Mr Boyden said that it was nice to see the town council was still supporting the PMTI and hoped EHDC would

do the same.

And the town could lose colour this summer after Petersfield in Bloom was told they would only get £7,500 Ð about half the amount they had requested.

The group, who won best town in the Southern England in Bloom category in 2002, asked for £14,660 and warned councillors that planting would have to be cut if the full amount could not be given.

Gill Towner, PIB treasurer, said: ÒWe needed almost £15,000 to do it this year.

ÒThis is a disappointment, we will be struggling.Ó

She said the group will try to recoup the shortfall through fund-raising in the town.

ÒIt will mean we will be able to some planting but not all of it. It depends on how people support us,Óshe said.

ÒWe have a very small team of volunteers who are hard working, but we need to know that the town council supports us otherwise people will not carry on.Ó

Another much-loved amenity that has been hit by the grant cutbacks is the open air swimming pool. The pool project asked for £6,000 but will only receive £5,500.

Councillors had also wanted to give as much as £15,000 to The Petersfield School to help with the building of a multi-use games area.

The funding, to ensure

floodlights would be installed enabling members of the

public to use the pitch in the evenings and at weekends,

has been cut back to £2,500.

George Watkinson, chairman of the councilÕs finance and general purposes committee, told The Herald that the council had faced a tough decision.

ÒIt is a democratic process, everybody had their say.

Many wanted to spend more on this or that.

ÒThe finance and general purposes committee decided it wanted to keep the precept increase low and therefore reduced expenditure on

many items and increased rents,Ó he said.

ÒOur total income is less than half of what we need to keep the town running unless we cut out the maintenance of the heath and grants completely, and that is not good policy for Petersfield.

ÒSo it was decided to cut back to bare essentials. It was not helped by having

grounds and litter contracts coming up.Ó