BOROUGH councillors have decided to retain partnership funding for a number of crucial organisations supporting communities in West Devon for the next 12 months against a backdrop of huge financial shortfalls.

The discussions were part of a wide ranging discussion on the council’s budget.

The council is facing a £900,000 funding gap by 2020/21, with the gap forecast to grow to £3.4-million over the next five years. The ever increasing gap is largely due to cuts in central government funding. This has left the council facing tough decisions on how to close the funding gap.

At its full council meeting on Tuesday (February 20), councillors voted on whether or not to amend original plans to withdraw discretionary partnership funding to a number of organisations. The original vote was a tie, leaving the decision in the hands of West Devon mayor Cllr Jeff Moody.

He decided to support the amendment and defer partnership funding cuts for 12 months.

The organisations to get a reprieve are West Devon Community and Voluntary Service, Citizens Advice, Young Devon, Okehampton Community Transport Group, Tavistock Ring and Ride Group and the South West Rotary Youth Games (formerly known as the Devon Youth Games).

Those who voted to retain the funding argued that the organisations involved had not been given enough time to create new funding streams ahead of the new financial year.

Cllr Tony Leech, member for Okehampton East, had made the proposal to retain the funding for the partner organisations. He said: ‘I have to say I’m fully aware of the fact that discretionary grants are just that — discretionary. If the squeeze on our funds continue without us creating income, these grants will have to go.

‘When we were doing the budget workshop last year, we said we should not forget why we are here.

‘Our purpose is to represent those who have elected us and should not allow cuts to affect our moral conscience. We should prioritise charities that affect individuals and health and wellbeing of our communities.

’We should look to do the best we can for those less fortunate than us. Grants are being cut by every government department and local authority, mainly based on a numbers game. Those in West Devon fall well below the numbers game when it comes to funding.’

Cllr Philip Sanders, leader of the council, said: ‘These partnership grants are discretional, they are reviewed every year, they are not a commitment. Every organisation is and should be aware of that with their budgeting.

‘Every organisation besides perhaps the South West Rotary Youth Games was aware they may well not be getting the same amount this year as previous years. They should be aware anyway, grants are clearly discretionary.

‘If we don’t make cuts now, we will have to make a bigger cut next year. It seems most want to delay these cuts for 12 months. That is the easy option. It’s a cop out to let it go for 12 months.

‘The arguments will not be any different next year. The argument about what they provide and the merits of the organisations will not have changed.

‘It is a very difficult situation. I am as conflicted as every other member in this room. Yet I don’t think I can justify supporting these charities if the alternative is to have refuse collection every three weeks instead of every two, or close public toilets. Whichever way the vote goes, I will be very sad. This is the first of a series of hard decisions we are going to have to make over the coming years ahead.’

While the organisations will retain funding for the coming year, it looks likely their grants will be slashed in 12 months’ time.

During the budgetary discussions, the council agreed to proposed savings and to try and generate income amounting to £783,930. This included a plan to try and increase revenue generated from borough council car parks by £180,000 through ‘the reasonable setting of car parking tariffs.

This looks set to lead to a rise in parking charges, including increasing the £2 all day charge in many of the car parks to £2.50. Possible charge increases have been met with criticism from the West Devon business community.

The topic of car parking will be discussed in more detail at the council’s next hub committee meeting on March 13.

Councillors also agreed to a council tax increase of 2.99% — around £6.52 a year for a Band D property — for 2018-19.