THE leader of a campaign group in Tavistock has accused the town council of being 'negative' and 'ill-informed', after it refused a grant application for £5,000. Tavistock Forward requested the money for its Town Alive Revisited programme — it intends to measure the progress made from a Towns Alive project seven years ago, as well as develop a marketing and promotional campaign linked to Tavistock's recent designation as a World Heritage Site. But the council's refusal to support the programme sparked a stinging attack from Tavistock Forward chairman John Taylor. Mr Taylor, in a letter to town clerk Roger Howard, said: 'Even if your council do not have the funds, it would have been preferable if you could have offered some encouragement and support, as while the town council has never provided any funding for the Town Alive Programme in the past, they previously endorsed the programme and participated. 'It is a personal disappointment they no longer wish to do so and we find it very sad and unfortunate the town council cannot support the local community groups who give up so much of their time to contribute to the well-being of the town.' The council refused the grant on grounds there was 'too much generalisation' regarding the request — members felt it was not clear what the £5,000 would be spent on, and considered overlapping local groups and organisations 'seemed to be doing the same things'. In his letter, Mr Taylor said: 'I thought I had explained the proposal to you. I would have been delighted to provide further information if requested, had you explained that your members could not understand the proposal.' But councillors last week hit back at Mr Taylor's comments. Cllr Harry Smith, chairman of the town's finance committee, said the request had been debated very thoroughly during several meetings. He said the council had produced a grant application form so requests could be dealt with on a 'level playing field'. 'Some requests have been very clear and concise, but on this occasion, we found it wasn't as clear as it ought to have been — it was a confused application,' he said. He said it was 'unfortunate' the letter took the view the council did not support community groups, when in fact, members spent 'many hours' deliberating which local organisation to grant funding to. Cllr Jane Ramsey said there had been a history of poor communication between Tavistock Forward and the town council — but she felt the council made substantial contributions to local organisations — including a £5,000 grant in the past to Tavistock Forward. Cllr Mandy Govier felt many local groups, including Tavistock Forward, were 'having a pop' at the council. She said the council tried to help small, fledgling organisations and some of the more established ones should not be reliant on funding from the town. 'I find it very sad that these public groups in the town are slating us. It's sad we are being spoken about in these terms,' she said. Cllr Govier said the council had supported several of the projects included in the original Town Alive programme, which she thought people sometimes forgot about. 'This is tax payers' money we are spending and we need to have a clear focus,' said Cllr Govier, adding that the letter refusing Tavistock Forward's request had perhaps been 'a tad harsh'. Cllr David Whitcombe said he had attended many Tavistock Forward meetings and felt the organisation's main concern was that neither the town or borough councils was capitalising properly on the fact Tavistock was now a World Heritage Site. Town mayor Anne Johnson said: 'The Town Alive programme is a mechanism for looking to the future — we don't want Tavistock to stand still. This is a mechanism for re-visiting the previous report and moving things forward with new recommentations. 'If the town council is going to do this, that's fine. but if we haven't got the time or resources to do it, perhaps we should give encouragement to others to do it.' The committee agreed a letter should be sent to Tavistock Forward, thanking the group for its hard work on behalf of the town, and offering to consider funding for any specific projects which may arise in future. The decision was due to be ratified by the full council at its meeting on Tuesday.
