IF you are not prepared to support us, just hand over Sheet millennium meadow and let us look after it. That was the stark message from Sheet Village Association to Petersfield town councillors on Monday night after members agreed a "disappointing" £350 grant. Chairman of Sheet Village Association (SVA) Andrew Platt sat in the public gallery as councillors debated yet again whether or not to give the SVA financial help to maintain the council-owned millennium meadow. The storm had been brewing since the grant panel slashed the SVA's application from £850 to £350. It gathered momentum when members of the finance and general purposes committee axed the grant altogether. But on Monday, councillors made their final decision on the committee's recommendation to them. Town mayor Bob Ayer launched a stout defence of the Sheet Village Association and its work to maintain and enhance the town council-owned meadow. He dismissed claims that people in Petersfield did not use the Sheet Meadow as "not standing up to scrutiny." And he threw out a councillor's statement that SVA came to the town council "us and us alone" for financial help. Mr Ayer cited several other bodies which had given the group funding. "This debate has been going on for years. It attracts a bad press and damages the relationship with the community of Sheet. The suggestion that the meadow is not used by the people of Petersfield does not stand any scrutiny at all." He supported a motion to give SVA £350, saying he would prefer to give them what they had originally asked for. Chairman of the grants panel George Watkinson, backed by long-standing councillor Mary Vincent and Paul Molloy, claimed that when Sheet villagers originally proposed the setting up of the meadow, there was a statement that there would be no further cost to the town council. But he said council officers had been unable to find it. And vice-chairman of the finance committee Paul Molloy told the meeting that the committee had had to decide how important the Sheet meadow was to Petersfield compared with a range of other grant applications. He said four years ago the council had been in "financial meltdown" and that the situation had been turned around by careful administration of finances. He said it had been the view of the finance committee that the grant from the SVA should be cut out. But Hilary Ayer told the meeting: "I don't see why we keep penny pinching about the Sheet millennium meadow." She said it was used by the people of Petersfield: "Sheet is part of Petersfield. Sheet people use the meadow and everyone from Petersfield has enjoyed the functions put on up there." She said she believed that if the original request for an £850 grant had been agreed, then it would still have represented value for money. And Mrs Ayer pointed out that Rotherlands Conservation Group had got what it asked for. Linda Daubney told councillors: "If Rotherlands gets its grant, I find it difficult to see why Sheet meadow does not." And Mr Platt stressed that Sheet villagers were maintaining a town council-owned asset and raising substantial capital funds to do it. He said that many Petersfield people walked in the meadows and that Sheet had held the hugely successful Trafalgar celebrations jointly with the town, beginning in Petersfield town centre and ending at Sheet meadow. After hearing that a £350 grant had been agreed, he told the meeting: "I would like to express my disappointment. If this town council is not prepared to support the maintenance of the meadow, then grant us the freehold and let us get on with it ourselves."
