By Joe McCann
A BANGOR-based community group has criticised Ards and North Down Council claiming there is a funding disparity which contributes to an unfair allocation of grants.
Clandeboye Community Association (CCA) made the claims in its recent newsletter which pointed out that the organisation is only able to apply for £2,500 of council funding for an organisation which serves 7,000 residents.
Aaron McMahon of CCA said councillors are not fighting hard enough for local community groups and also criticised thousands of pounds in funding which has been awarded by the council to prestigious private sports clubs such as the yacht, golf and rugby clubs.
Speaking to the Spectator, Mr McMahon said he wrote the newsletter because he is ‘fighting just to get some sort of equity’.
“I just feel miserable,” he said. “The truth of it comes down to our elected representatives. They’re not fighting for us enough.” Mr McMahon said the current funding rules mean multiple community groups often have to compete for up to £2,500 worth of funding, which barely makes a dent in the outgoings for the CCA who pay around £8,000 yearly to run their community hall.
Mr McMahon also criticised local councillors who represent the Clandeboye area who were on the committee which awarded thousands of pounds to private sports clubs.
“We were shocked when we saw thousands of pounds being allocated to what are private members clubs,“ he said.
“Our community association is run by volunteers and without a doubt, the three wealthiest groups of clubs within this area are rugby clubs, golf clubs and yacht clubs. The yacht club was allocated £6,000 and golf clubs £6,000 for other initiatives.” He continued: “We had Clandeboye councillors on this committee that awarded thousands to private sports clubs.
“You would think that people elected to serve the residents of Clandeboye would have our best interests at heart or would question that and say, guys, how can we justify giving £6,000 to a yacht club, because we have a volunteer-ran community association we’re throwing scraps at.”
Mr McMahon said all the activities hosted by his association are free for the community to use, such as the youth club, and said charging for entry to the youth club would be counter-productive as many in the area wouldn’t be able to afford to go.
“Our youth club is free, because you wouldn’t have half the kids in it if you were charging kids a pound because someoftheseyoungpeoplegenuinely could not afford it,” he said.
Mr McMahon said he believed it was unfair that areas such as Clandeboye were only able to apply for the same funding amount as other areas with much smaller populations. He said many community groups in smaller areas such as Killinchy with a few hundred residents received fair funding per head but when applied to Clandeboye, an area with 7,000 residents, it saw the area losing out and not receiving the same funding per resident.
Mr McMahon made it clear he did not want to see funding taken away from any other community group and given to his own and stressed he merely wanted to see a more equitable model in terms of funding that could suit areas with a larger amount of residents.
“I’m just asking for an amount that understands the size and the scale of this area, and the amount of people in this area,” he said. “Because you have working-class communities like Clandeboye stuck at the bottom of the ladder, getting kicked about and fed scraps.”
