Council issues grants to boost wider access to arts festivals

MORE than £4,500 has been awarded to community groups and charities by Henley Town Council.

A total of four organisations had applied for funding, totalling £7,800.

The grants were awarded out of council’s £14,800 grant pot, which is generally equally divided between the September and March committee meetings.

In addition to grants, groups could apply to up to £1,000 worth of “free use” of council venues for private meetings or free-to-attend public events during off-peak periods.

Some of those who applied were asked to provide more information before an award.

The Henley Arts Trail was granted £1,707 of the £2,500 it applied for, including £500 of free use of banners on the town hall to advertise the event, which takes place annually in May.

Speaking at the meeting of the finance strategy and management committee on Tuesday last week, Wendy Penrose said that the money would be used to put up signage around the town to direct people towards the newly established river taxi service it was implementing this year. She said the idea was to encourage more people to travel around the town to the trails and venues, such as Henley Business School at Greenlands and the Eyot Centre in Wargrave Road, without a car.

The signs would be put up to direct people from Twyford and Henley railway stations, to the docks at Hobbs boatyard and at the Red Lion Lawn, as well as signage on the ferry itself.

Ms Penrose said that following the town council’s financial assistance to put the banners up last year, the trail saw an increase in footfall of 44 per cent.

This year will be the event’s 20th anniversary and Ms Penrose said it hoped to increase the number of venues from 31 it had last year.

She said: “We are hoping to have 13 venues in the town centre and that is despite the very sad loss of the River & Rowing Museum.

“We want to encourage everyone from Twyford to Shiplake to Henley to just go on public transport. In order to do that we need a lot of signage and we are hoping to have big flag signs that stand independently because by the river you need something that will stand out, and they aren’t cheap.”

The Chilterns Arts Festival received the full £1,500 it asked for. Organiser Naomi Taylor said the festival runs a series of events across the district for young people to experience live music.

This will include a ListenUp event at the Christ Church Centre in Henley next year where 250 schoolchildren will be able to watch a performance of classical music.

Councillor Michelle Thomas, who is a trustee of the Henley Educational Trust which provides grants for local school and pupils, said it was very important to fund arts education.

She said: “Any outreach for schools wins my heart every time because as we know, our state schools have been horribly underfunded for many, many years now. It just needs one pupil to be lit up by something like this, and it could change the course of a life.”

Henley Exiles, a newly-formed football club, requested £2,500 to help with league fees, kit costs, training ground hire and equipment.

He said: “The application itself didn’t give me as much information as I would like to see, not saying that what was there wasn’t suitable.”

Berkshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre applied for £1,300 to provide specialist treatment free of charge for people with MS living in Henley.

Cllr Reissmann suggested that the council meet with the charity to find out about more about its finances before giving the grant, owing to the fact that its reserves had increased by around £100,000.

Councillor Gawrysiak said he agreed with Cllr Reissmann but that he felt it was important to contribute to a charity providing key support to 17 Henley residents.

The council agreed to give the charity the full amount, subject to further discussions.

Greener Henley, an environmental campaign group, was also granted £100 in free use of a council spaces for its annual meeting.