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