Parents at Cholsey angry at council's rejection of grant for play equipment (From Herald Series)

Parents at Cholsey angry at council's rejection of grant for play equipment

12:37pm Friday 3rd July 2009

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PARENTS in Cholsey are furious after their local council refused to help them replace old equipment in the village’s only play area.

Six mothers have been campaigning to get the Station Road Recreation Ground refurbished for two years and had pinned their hopes on a grant from South Oxfordshire District Council to fund a large chunk of the £130,000 project.

They said most of the 20-year-old play equipment was falling to pieces and was expected to be deemed unsafe by inspectors later this month. They also said there was no equipment suitable for older children.

However, councillors refused the application for £80,000, sparking fury among families.

Stella Mitchell, 44, of Honey Lane, Cholsey, said: “We are gutted. Heartbroken is the word. It seems absolutely ludicrous we cannot be awarded any money.

“I definitely think we are a priority case.

“Cholsey is one of the most deprived areas for children in south Oxfordshire and the need for new play equipment has been identified many times before.

“We weren’t asking for much money compared to the others.

“I feel very let down by our district council. Everyone is really quite angry.”

Cholsey Parish Council has awarded the project £20,000 and another grant of £32,000 has also been secured, but that still leaves a shortfall of £78,000.

Mother-of-three Katie Sims, 39, of Weedon Close, Cholsey, said: “It’s the only play area we have for the whole village and a quarter of our residents are under 18 and there is nothing for them. The way the money is allocated is completely flawed. This play area is so essential for people in our village.”

Rodney Mann, cabinet member for finance at SODC, said: “We had over £2m worth of applications, with £740,000 to give, and, therefore, some difficult decisions to make.

“We have a very transparent, robust and fair scoring system to help us make these decisions which we have developed over many years. “In recent years, we have decided to award the successful projects their full request in order to give them a better chance of getting off the ground. In the past, we found that only 50 per cent of the projects we were awarding small grants to were actually materialising. “Unfortunately, this means we are not able to award many other well-deserving projects like Cholsey play area . “We have, however, suggested to them they split the project in two, as it involves a site for young children and one for teens, and to focus on the one in most need first.

“They can then make an application to the small grants of under £25,000.”

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