Coronation celebration funding refused by Aberdeenshire councillors
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Councillors have refused a north-east charity group’s appeal for funding to celebrate King Charles III’s coronation.
Three groups had applied to Aberdeenshire Council’s Marr area committee budget in a bid to get financial help for their ongoing projects.
The applications were considered by the committee yesterday.
One of the groups, Ballater (Royal Deeside) Limited, had applied on behalf of Ballater and Crathie Coronation Celebration Committee for up to £2,000.
But councillor Geva Blackett asked if the local authority could set a limit on any coronation spending over fears other groups would lose out on essential money.
She said: “What we don’t want is to run out of funds.
“We want to treat communities fairly and with all the other pressures that communties are facing, we don’t want to get to September and find that we’ve spent all our money on having a party.”
However councillor Gwyneth Petrie said she was “very reluctant” to see any area budget money spent on coronation celebrations.
She suggested groups look to alternative funding sources to help with their events instead.
Ms Petrie explained: “We could have a number of communties wanting to do this.
“Given we are seeing where our communities are at in terms of cost of living and other things, I just have a concern that our budgets have a better home perhaps than celebrations.”
Committee chair, councillor Robbie Withey, agreed and said he was “not convinced” it was the best use of council cash.
He said: “We had the jubilee celebrations before, a lot of communities raised their own funds or got them through other sources.
“I’m not convinced myself that it’s necessarily an appropriate use of Marr committee funding.
“There are other ways this can be funded without taking from our budget which gets used for other things, not what is effectively a party.”
Councillor Geva Blackett asked if officers could point local groups towards alternative funding routes to prevent further applications being made to the council.
She said: “We do need to think of pressures our communities are coming under and with budgets really tight, communities are going to rely on this grant funding more and more.”
Meanwhile councillors agreed to award Ballater’s Victoria and Albert Halls Trust £1694 for new shelves and storage facilities.
The new items will help a number of local groups including Busy Bees, Ballater Lego Club and Ballater SWI.
And a sum of £960 will be given to Lumphanan Heritage Society to go towards a market valuation and reinstatement cost assessment for Lumphanan Parish Church.
