Sirs
In his recent letter, Councillor Dobson merely underlines the point I made in my letter complaining that government money passed to local authorities to alleviate COVID-19 issues, is not ‘trickling down’ to town councils.
He states that Marlborough Town Council’s COVID-19 volunteer scheme, the Jubilee Centre’s meals-on-wheels and St John’s students needing digital tablets have benefitted with grants made from Area Board funding – all good causes of course. But why are Area Board funds being used for this emergency when special funding has been provided to Wiltshire Council?
Area Board funds are budgeted each year by Wiltshire Council and are supposed to benefit community enterprises across the whole of the Marlborough Area.
The government’s £3 billion-plus emergency funding for local authorities is specifically for unexpected COVID-19 related costs. A tiny part of Wiltshire’s share of that money should have been used for the COVID-19 related costs Councillor Dobson and his fellow Area Board directors have instead had to draw from Area Board funds.
The normal Area Board budget will be sorely needed when the lock-down is completely over and many local community enterprises (youth groups, pre-school groups, groups looking after those with special needs and so on) will be struggling to get back on their feet – with depleted bank balances and plenty of good work required of them.
I would be interested to hear whether Wiltshire Council is providing emergency funding at a local level in any other parts of the county. As we saw with Wiltshire Council’s parsimony in refusing to help fund the Marlborough Community and Youth Centre except – again – via an Area Board grant, they do not like spending money on Marlborough.
Yours,
Tony Millett
Clench Common
VE Day 75 in Marlborough – bringing people together at home
