£7,000 grants for groups and events passed

ALMOST £7,000 in grants has been awarded by Henley Town Council to community organisations and events.

Members of the council’s finance committee approved seven applications for funding and rejected three.

Henley Choral Society was awarded £2,500 towards the cost of staging a concert at the Oratory School in Woodcote next month.

Susan Edwards, who chairs the society, said ticket sales would not cover the £20,000 cost but it had received £6,000 from its own sponsorship scheme.

Mrs Edwards said: “In 50 years, we have never approached Henley Town Council for help with concert expenses.

“We are very careful and cautious with our money but venue hire, staging, transport and professional musicians have all increased in price while audiences have not yet returned to pre-pandemic size.”

Deputy Mayor Michelle Thomas said the independent school should have offered use of the school chapel at no cost or a reduced rate.

Henley Symphony Orchestra was awarded £800 in order to offer 80 free tickets to children and parents for its family concert in July.

The orchestra is a charity that presents four concerts a year and will offer the tickets to 10 children from lower- income backgrounds at the town’s four state primary schools.

Councillor Ken Arlett said that the adults should pay for their tickets.

But Councillor Laurence Plant said: “These organisations do great things and in my view it doesn’t matter whether it’s an adult ticket or child ticket or buying a light bulb, it’s just an amount to help them out when they’re struggling to make ends meet.” The Henley branch of Walkers are Welcome, which aims to promote the town as walker-friendly, was awarded £500 towards the organising of a walking festival.

Four councillors voted against and four were in favour so committee chairman Ian Reissmann used his casting vote to approve the application.

Councillor Lorraine Hillier said: “This is their hobby and I see no benefit to the town. The pubs obviously don’t see the value or they would have agreed to support it financially.”

Cllr Arlett said: “I don’t see why we should pay for people to walk. I walk to the ‘Top Shops’ but I don’t need to be sponsored for that. Why are we sponsoring people to wear out their shoes?”

Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak argued it was a small amount of money to promote Henley as a walking destination and the walkers would buy sandwiches and coffee in the town.

Henley Tennis Club was awarded £1,500 to enable head coach Tom Scott to run 10 hours of coaching in the summer term in the town’s four state primary schools and to host all four at the end of the holidays for a schools tennis festival.

Councillors said future applications might be better directed to the Henley Educational Trust.

The Berkshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre in Reading was awarded £1,000 to provide specialist treatments for people living in Henley with MS.

The charity supports 11 families in the area.

Greener Henley, which runs events and work parties to improve Henley’s environment, was awarded £234 to pay for insurance cover.

The new Henley Swifts Support Group, which aims to protect the dwindling swift population in Henley, was awarded £350.

It has installed 12 swift boxes around Henley and will use the grant to buy six new double boxes and six call systems which will play swift sounds to attract the birds to the boxes.

Cllr Gawrysiak said this was a good use of funds.

The committee rejected an application for £2,500 from Make Henley Shine, which wants to put lights on Henley Bridge.

Councillors said the application was premature as planning permission had not yet been granted.

Cllr Hillier said: “This money isn’t our money, it’s taxpayers’ money, and this application should not be before us this evening.”

Henley Baptist Church, which hosts the d:two community centre was refused an application for £2,500 to refurbish the building in Market Place.

Cllr Hillier said: “I don’t support this at all. I feel strongly that it’s time the church paid for this themselves. If you look at their accounts, they’ve got just shy of £2 million. I think they could look after their own building.

“Henley Town Council heavily supports d:two and we pay for most of that ourselves.”

Harpsden Pre-School was refused an application for £1,265 to enhance the woodland and nature areas around the premises.

A decision on an application by the Eyot Centre in Wargrave Road was deferred.

Applications for free use of the council’s venues by Henley District Housing Trust, Henley Town and Visitors’ Regatta, Jeux D’Esprit and the Kenton Theatre were approved.