Thatcham Town Council withholds extra funding

Councillors say they will not hand over extra £8k for discovery centre until they know how it will be spent

THATCHAM Town Council is withholding the extra £8,000 it promised the Nature Discovery Centre until West Berkshire Council can provide more details about how the money will be spent.

Now West Berkshire Council has agreed to resubmit its spending report after the initial one was rejected by the town council.

Town councillors agreed to up the amount of financial support it gave to the Muddy Lane centre this year, from £2,000 to £10,000, after it was criticised by the district council for not increasing its annual donation since 1987.

The exchange between the two bodies took place after the district council suggested a trial parking charge at the centre in 2010 to raise money for running costs.

The idea was dropped after much backlash from the public.

Agreeing this year's budget, the town council earmarked an extra £8,000 for the centre, however, when councillors were given the spending report which detailed the service level agreement, they were unhappy with the vague outlines of how the money would be spent.

Town and district councillor Jeff Brooks (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said that the agreement was “loose and light”.

He said: “If we are going to have a light agreement, we rely on goodwill.

“However, given that West Berkshire runs the facility and tried to impose parking charges, do we think that the light touch is appropriate?

“If it goes wrong, we don't have a lot of recourse for our money.”

The initial report stated that the town council's money would be spent on events such as cleaner and greener educational activities.

However, councillors said that this could mean something taking place once a year and that residents would not necessarily get value for their money.

Town councillor Owen Jeffery (Lib Dem, Thatcham South and Crookham) said that he was disappointed by the agreement and added that the district council would not get a penny until the report was written properly.

Town councillor Lee Dillon (Lib Dem, Thatcham North) said: “We said we would be happy to increase to £10,000 but with certain conditions.

“We need to see that £10,000 in this service level agreement.”

Mr Brooks added: “It is not unreasonable for the people of Thatcham to see what they are getting for their £10,000.”

A spokesman for the district council, Phil Spray, said: “There is no disagreement between ourselves and Thatcham Town Council over this.

“We have provided a first draft for consideration.

“They have asked us to be more specific regarding some aspects of the centre's work and we have no issue with doing so, as it can be difficult to correctly quantify the benefit that environmental education and events can bring.”