Fury over how cash is dished out to groups
Only one application heard at special meeting
A councillor has blasted the handling of a community meeting to decide on a funding application for a Paisley carnival.
A special gathering of Paisley North Local Area Committee was called in order to consider a funding application from the organisers of Scottish Afro-Caribbean Carnival at Barshaw Park.
But SNP councillor Will Mylet, who represents Paisley East and Ralston, is claiming applications from various other groups were not allowed to be heard and there was no notice of the details of the meeting.
He said: “This unscheduled meeting was called by the convener of the LAC, Labour Councillor Jim Sharkey, but had only one item on the agenda.
“This was to hand over the funds remaining in the Paisley North LAC account to the Scottish AfroCaribbean Art Association to assist with insurance costs for the annual Scottish Afro-Caribbean Carnival.
“However, SNP councillors raised concerns that there were no other applicants included in the funding process, even though five other groups had applied for funding at the previous meeting of the Labour-convened Paisley North LAC and were refused as they were deemed to be late applications.
“Yet not one of them was put forward for funding at this unscheduled meeting.”
He added: “There are serious concerns about this meeting.
“Why were groups who were told their funding applications were too late at the February meeting not allowed to submit their applications to this meeting?
“It seems the council’s events team had sent a letter to the LAC’s convener supporting the funding bid for the carnival but hadn’t bothered to inform any of the local councillors, including myself.”
He added: “Yet again Labour’s manipulation of the Local Area Committees raises concerns about how they deal with funding for local groups.”
Mr Sharkey, who also represents Paisley East and Ralston, accused Mr Mylet of political motivation in the run- up to May’s council elections and that his comments were not based on reality.
“I don’t think he has concerns,” he said.
“He’s trying to create an election issue. It’s despicable.”
Mr Sharkey said if Mr Mylet would have known what the meeting was about if he had paid attention to the agenda.
“He should have checked the papers,” he said.
A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “A council committee, such as Paisley North Local Area Committee, can be scheduled to consider a timespecific item.
“In this case, an application for funding had been made from the Scottish Afro-Caribbean Art Association – Paisley Diversity Carnival.
“The normal range of funding applications by local community groups will be considered in May as part of the 2017-18 allocation of funding when there will be a full year’s funding in place.”
The elected members on the committee decided to continue a decision on the carnival funding application, which amounts to less than £ 500, for another two weeks.