New Event Fund - taking with one hand and giving with another

New Event Fund - taking with one hand and giving with another It’s always great to read that money is being made available to support cultural, sporting and community events in our county. Life in our county is enriched by the efforts of very many people who give up their own time to run groups and organise events. So it’s great news that Northumberland County Council have set up a brand new fund to help people organising events with the cost of traffic management, closing roads and litter collection at any events they’re organising. The bit they’re not telling you they needn’t have had to set up a fund if they hadn’t decided they were going to start charging groups for these things from June this year Clearly the county council thinks it needs to soften the blow of ceasing to provide this support to the many local community, sport and cultural groups in the county, so it is using private windfall cash to create this fund. We’re told the fund will give organisations the chance to hold their events as usual this year, then think how they’re going to raise funds to pay the council for closing roads, managing traffic and clearing litter for any events they hold from next year onwards. To put it simply, any group thinking of holding an event in 2020 better start fundraising now, though I can’t see many funders being willing to donate the cost of closing a road. The Community Chest Scheme, protected by Labour when it led the council, has been slashed by £70,000. Every area of council services has been slashed while your council tax bill has gone up. And, not content with that, the council want to charge you for the pleasure of helping you with your event. https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Councillors/Community-Chest.aspx