CASH-strapped Suffolk is this year giving grants to outside organisations totalling more than £2 million, The Evening Star can reveal today.
CASH-strapped Suffolk is this year giving grants to outside organisations totalling more than £2 million, The Evening Star can reveal today.
Details of the county council's grants were published after the Star submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request asking for details about the money it gave to outside bodies.
The council has made grants totalling £2,033,745 for the current financial year.
They range in size and scope from £171,230 to the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich to £250 from the Arts for All budget for an event at Bury cathedral.
The grants were approved by the county council at a meeting in February - and the figure includes £750,000 which was given to councillors for them to spend on projects in their own divisions.
Among other significant donations were almost £83,000 to the museum of East Anglian Life at Stowmarket, nearly £89,000 to the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds which is currently being restored to its Georgian splendour, and £40,000 to Gainsborough's House museum in Sudbury.
Council leader Jeremy Pembroke said the grants were all considered very carefully before they were approved.
He said: “We have a duty to do what we can to improve life in Suffolk, and most of these grants help us to achieve that.
“The grants help individual groups and help give the area its own distinctive character. Organisations like the Wolsey Theatre are very important to life in Suffolk and it is important for us to support them,” he said.
Mr Pembroke said organisations like the Citizens' Advice Bureaux were especially important because they provided services that would otherwise have to be undertaken by the council.
“I often have people coming to see me for help - and I send them to the CAB which is able to sort out their problems. They are very worthwhile,” he said.
County council grants 2006/7:
Museums:
Gainsborough's House, Sudbury £40,060
Long Shop Museum, Leiston £17,000
Museum of East Anglian Life £82,980
West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village £7,220
Arts organisations:
Aldeburgh Productions £15,930
Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery £15,080
DanceEast £34,200
Eastern Angles £33,970
New Wolsey Theatre £138,330
Suffolk Artlink £10,050
Theatre Royal, Bury £89,100
Wingfield Arts £8,980
Arts Council England East £12,100
Arts For All:
Inside Out £500
The C.U.T. Dance Group £1,000
Dance East £1,000
St Eds. Bury Cathedral £250
Home Live Art Ltd £1,500
Stowhundreds £500
Yoxford Arts Festival ltd £1,000
Arts Adventure £1,200
Skillz £1,500
Balkan Cultural Centre £1,000
Arts Framlingham £403
Nutmeg Puppet Co. £1,000
Positive Dads £850
The Poetry Trust £1,000
Peppery Productions £300
EA Trad. Music Trust £800
Green Desert Films £600
Dance East £500
Eastern Angles Theatre £500
Ipswich Caribbean Association International Community Centre £600
Grants from Children & Young People's Services directorate
Aldeburgh Foundation £12,300
Wolsey Theatre £32,900
Suffolk Schools Sports Associations £41,000
Dance East 'in kind' support to the value of £50,632
Grants from Public Protection directorate
Suffolk Accident Rescue Service £500
Citizens Advice Bureaux (2007 budget figures)
CAB Lowestoft £20,905
CAB Beccles £23,242
CAB Sudbury £16,923
CAB Ipswich £51,264
CAB Bury St Edmunds £43,390
CAB Haverhill £53,627
CAB Stowmarket £22,716
CAB West Waveney £26,038
CAB Newmarket £23,452
CAB Mildenhall £26,157
CAB Felixstowe £23,452
CAB Leiston/ Saxmundham £29,152
Grants through the Suffolk single gateway:
Felixstowe Old People's Welfare Association £900
Jubilee Ladies Choir £2,000
Romany Theatre Company £1,500
Rural Coffee Caravan Information Project £3,000
Young People Taking Action £2,000
SAVO - Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations £1,450
DIAL - Lowestoft & Waveney £5,000
Eye Arts Club £935
FIND - Families in Need £1,300
Hollesley Bay Day Centre £450
Victim Support Suffolk £6,000
Ipswich & Suffolk Bangladeshi Muslim Community Centre and Mosque £3,000
Cambridge Music Festival £1,500
Suffolk Ipswich Epilepsy Support Group £500
Workwise (Suffolk) Ltd £6,000
The Suffolk Federation of Young Farmers Clubs £4,500.
Beccles Carnival Committee £2,000
Ipswich & Suffolk Indian Association £1,500
Rose and Sweet William Club £750
Whitton Residents Association £1,200
East Anglian Traditional Music Trust £800
Suffolk County Scout Council £550
The Bridge Project £9,800
Leiston Day Club £550
Suffolk Clubs for Young People £9,500
Alzheimer's Society - East Suffolk branch £2,000
Ipswich Community Radio £6,000
Riding for the Disabled £3,000
Lark Stroke Club £1,500
Blyth Kids Club £500
The Rochford Trust £13,000
Swimming Self-Help group £2,000
Ipswich Community Carnival £6,000
West Suffolk MIND £6,000
The Salvation Army £2,000
Gatehouse Caring in West Suffolk £10,200
Ipswich YMCA £12,000
Bury St. Edmunds Volunteer Centre £9,000
Eye Opportunity Group £2,041
Friends of Leiston High School. £5,000
Ipswich Women's Aid £1,300
The Girls Brigade - Suffolk district. £600
Enterprise Lowestoft £12,000
Haverhill Advocacy & Mentoring Service (HAMS) £9,310
Stowmarket & Area Opportunity Group £1,750
Choices £6,000
Signpost Gunton £5,000
Eden's Project £8,474
Support Contemporary Adolescence £19,990
Yoxford Arts Festival Ltd. £1,500
Young People Taking Action £8,000
Together - Working for Wellbeing £3,000
Cruse Bereavement Care - West Suffolk £1,690
Diocesan of St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich £4,100
Girl Guiding Suffolk £5,000
East Anglian Traditional Music Trust £1,400
Red Rose Chain £6,200
The Original Theatre Company £1,500
Optua - (on behalf of the Disability Forum for Suffolk) £6,875
Suffolk Artlink £5,980
Millennium Farm Trust £3,000
Ipswich Community Radio £1,500
Success After Stroke (SAS) £3,000
Ipswich & District Stroke Club £350
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