In a first for Smalltown and Dullbridge Town Council’s Finance and Misappropriation Committee, Councillors this week discussed whether or not they should release the funds awarded to one of the applicants in the last round of SaDTC grants.
The Smalltown Pride group, who were successful in their bid for funding to hold Smalltown and Dullbridge’s first ever Pride – a Really Unique Diverse Event (PRUDE), had to submit a written request to actually receive the money.
A SaDTC spokesperson said “In the interest of equality we decided to treat the PRUDE group differently and for the first time ever we discussed whether or not to give an organisation the money we’d promised them.
We asked PRUDE to again explain who they were and what they wanted to use the money for – all questions that we had previously asked in the original application and which the group had answered satisfactorily.
The application by PRUDE is the only grant that we have applied this new hurdle to and we believe that it is only fair that this group be singled out in this way.”
It would appear that SaDTC have broken their own rules with regards to equality, diversity and discrimination. Asking the PRUDE group to supply further information after previously agreeing to grant funds, whilst not applying the same criteria to others requesting funding, borders on discrimination.
Even Smalltown and Dullbridge Carnivoo Committee were given their grant money without question, even though it later emerged that the Carnivoo Committee had broken Town Council rules regarding organisations being ‘Non-discriminatory’ after the Carnivoo Committee proved themselves to be homophobic.
All the other grants awarded during the first round of BeFuddled Party controlled Town Council have been issued with no strings. It had been hoped that a second round of grant applications would be held in early 2023, however this had to be cancelled, as the BeFuddleds didn’t actually know how much money was available in the pot in 2022 and thus spent it all at once.