Water Park set to lose £10k grant (From Swindon Advertiser)

Water Park set to lose £10k grant

9:50am Thursday 14th February 2013 in News By David Wiles

SWINDON Council is planning to scrap its annual £10,000 grant to the management board of Cotswold Water Park.

The money is less than 10 per cent of the attraction’s overall funding and goes to the committee, which comprises local authorities and other agencies providing strategic leadership, rather than directly to the charitable environmental trust which runs the park.

The council’s cross-party special committee decided in January 2012 to maintain the grant, but the Labour group said the subsidy was wasteful at a time when families were being squeezed through council tax and bills for front-line services were rising.

Now the Conservative administration is proposing to wholly cut the grant, as well as cut by £2,000 the annual grant to Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, and reduce by £1,000 the funding for the Wilts and Berks Canal Partnership.

Coun Jim Grant, the Labour group leader, said: “I welcome the fact that the Conservative group have taken up Labour’s savings idea of scrapping the £10,000 annual grant the council gives to Cotswold Water Park.

Coun Rod Bluh, the council leader, said: “We are working to fill a £15m gap in the budget. Can the Labour Party say where their next £14,990,000 of savings are?”