£30,000 for Crieff BID initiative

Crieff BID has narrowly been awarded £30,000 by Perth and Kinross Council for a new promenade performance event.

The local authority’s environment and infrastructure committee met on Wednesday to discuss the launch of a new nonrecurring budget for rural event funding.

However, some elected members were irked to see that at the same time as they were being told to vote on the introduction of the fee, they were also being asked to decide if one project could snap up almost a third of the budget.

The event, titled‘Horrible Histories’, will be held at Drummond Castle in November and December. Organisers hope the event will draw in over £100,000, mainly from ticket sales.

Councillors insisted on forcing a number of changes to who could apply for the grant, as officers had initially missed out the village of Scone.

SNP group leader Dave Doogan expressed his annoyance at the fact that they would only be voting to approve what he described as“a £70,000 budget after Crieff got in first.”

Cllr Alasdair Bailey asked if other groups would have known the money was available, and Cllr Grant Laing questioned:“How did Crieff BID know that this was becoming available, and how would competing applicants have known to apply?”

Officers insisted they had publicised the availability of grants.

Independent councillor for the Highland ward Xander McDade added:“I’m concerned about the amount being taken out of the pot, as [£30,000] is quite sizeable.”

At the request of Cllr Doogan, officers also dropped the exclusion of gala days and bonfire night organisers from applying, and asked for the Crieff BID to be awarded £15,000 per year for two years in order to spread out the funds.

This aspect went to a vote which ended in a stalemate, with seven votes for the £30,000 lump sum and seven for the split.

Cllr David Illingworth, substituting in for Cllr Callum Purves, was prevented from voting due to temporarily leaving the meeting, leaving the casting vote down to convenor Cllr Angus Forbes.