Town Council Yet to Decide Whether to Recover £5,000 Grant After Cancelled Winter Droving

Penrith Town Council is yet to decide whether it will recover a £5,000 grant the town council paid to Eden Arts for this year’s Winter Droving event, despite the event being cancelled 24 hours before it was due to take place.

The council paid the grant on the 9th October, but on the 24th October Eden Arts announced that the Winter Droving would not go ahead due to safety concerns over wind.

Since the cancellation, the Town Council has taken no action to reclaim the public money paid for from the council budget funded the annual household council tax precept charged by the town council, and is yet to make any formal decision on whether it intends to recover the public funds at all.

The decisions on awarding of town council grants is now undertaken by council officers with elected councillors only notified following the grant award decisions as a report at council meetings.

When asked for comment on the situation the Town Clerk said: “This matter will be considered by Members at a future Finance Committee meeting.”

It has been confirmed this week that the Droving parade will now form part of the Christmas Sparkle event on the 22^nd November, a separate event organsied by Penrith BiD for the annual Christmas Lights switch on which the town council has also awarded a separate £5000 grant to Penrith BiD.