ALTON Town Council’s policy and resources committee had the difficult job during an extraordinary meeting last Monday of allocating community grant funding to a list of applicants all deemed worthy causes.

With a budget of just £28,000, increased by agreement to £30,000 and stretched to £31,500 with the addition of a residual £1,500 from last year’s budget, councillors were faced with applications amounting to £60,550.

The committee heard presentations from all 10 applicants, resolving to defer making a decision on the request by Alton Citizens Advice (formerly CAB) pending discussions regarding potential relocation from its current town centre premises on Cross and Pillory Lane.

Alton Citizens Advice was seeking £10,800 to support, train and supervise existing team members in the provision of much-needed services to the community. Councillors decided to retain £5,000 from the Community Grant Fund to enable them to revisit the application dependent upon the outcome of these discussions.

Of the remaining nine, Pam Jones flagged up that Bushy Leaze, Alton Buckle and Home-Start WeyWater – which all provide services to children and families in the Alton area – had experienced significant cuts to their budgets by the withdrawal of funding from a number of previous benefactors.

Having worked hard to try to stretch the budget and to be as fair as possible to all the applicants, the decision was made to award £6,500 to Bushy Leaze Children and Families Centre, toward the cost of a £15,780 programme to target outreach work to support children aged from one to three.

It was agreed to award £6,500 to Alton Buckle Children’s Partnership to support its work in enabling local agencies, organisations and groups to deliver more effective services to open up opportunities and improve outcomes for some of the most vulnerable children and their families living in Alton and the surrounding villages.

Councillors heard that Alton Buckle currently employs three full-time members of staff and that the cost of running the organisation is around £84,000 per year but that previous funding from the Big Lottery was due to cease in 2017. Like Bushy Leaze, the organisation has applied for an Alton Town Council grant of £10,000.

Home-Start WeyWater was in a similar boat, having lost funding from the Big Lottery it was applying for £5,000 to continue offering support to parents, with at least one child under the age of five, struggling on the verge of family crisis and breakdown. An independent charity serving Alton, Bordon, Liphook and the surrounding area, the funding was need to support recruitment and training of volunteers working within these families. In the event, the town council was able to allocate £1,000 to support this work.

Alton Community Centre asked for and was awarded £8,000 to continue its work in serving the community of Alton and the surrounding area by providing a community club for the elderly, playgroup, leisure programme, youth services, shop mobility, cafe, and public toilets.

Alton Counselling Services was awarded £1,000 to support the continuing operation of its bursary scheme, The Bridges Support Project was award £750 to help in its work supporting children up to the age of 18 who have experienced or been subject to domestic abuse, while Victim Support is to receive £250 to support the purchase of security items which are then supplied, free of charge, to victims of crime.

In addition, Wey Valley Radio was awarded £1,500 – representing half the amount asked for – to support the setting up, 24 years after the launch of the original station, of a new local community radio service in Alton. Payable only if the project proceeds and Wey Valley Radio is formally established, the grant is needed to support the £7,500 project which will cover the setting up of a transmitter system, the annual licence fee and royalty costs.

Likewise, the 8th Alton Scout Group was granted £1,000 to support a £75,000 project to build an extension to the cabin headquarters in Anstey Park, but only payable on commencement of the work, as per the planning permission granted.