Wymondham Town Council rejects supporting youth mental health charity
A councillor was concerned about the number of items in the charity’s financial breakdown which weren't directly for therapy
A town council sitting on thousands of pounds set aside for youth support has rejected giving cash to a local charity.
Cup-O-T, a youth mental health support group, asked Wymondham Town Council for £4,937 to help them provide 20 occupational therapy groups in the town over 10 months.
But WTC rejected the call, despite criticism from some councillors it is sitting on more than £10,000 of unspent cash set aside for youth support.
The council sets aside £1,500 a year for this purpose.
At a meeting on Tuesday, South Wymondham councillor Julian Halls accepted there was money to be spent but was concerned about the number of items in the charity’s financial breakdown which were for admin and not directly for therapy.
He highlighted £600, being used for ‘resources’, which includes refreshments at the sessions.
Catherine Gray, the founder of Cup-O-T, defended where the cash would go, saying the admin costs were needed for licenses, registration, mileage and advertising to get the message out. The majority of the money would have gone towards a therapist and an assistant.
North Wymondham councillor Antony Holden said: “We have about £10,000 in the youth budget. We did have a lot more but the youth budget has not been used in so long it has been used for other projects.
“It is not going to do us any harm to support this.”
Mr Holden added the budget had once stood at over £20,000 before £16,000 was taken out for other projects unrelated to youth support.
Council accounts show the money was removed in 2019, meaning cash had been accumulating for at least 13 years.
Mr Halls, put forward an alternative suggestion – giving the charity around half the cash requested, covering the costs of an occupational therapist and assistant.
But councillor Kathryn Cross said: “It’s not for Catherine and her team to go and buy doughnuts.
“These are the actual cost for running the 20 sessions you can’t not have insurance, you can’t not have resources, you can’t not advertise it because you won’t get anyone turning up, you can’t not pay for the mileage for staff to get there.”
Mr Halls’ amendment and the original proposal were defeated.