COUNCILLORS have agreed to increase their financial support for a much-needed and valuable Wellington-based counselling service, writes WWN reporter Steve Sowden.

A three-year agreement between Wellington Town Council and the Wellington Community Counselling CIC group – in which the council has awarded it £12,000 per annum – is coming to an end.

But the council’s finance committee last month deferred making a decision on how much the authority should give the group each year in a new arrangement known as a Service Level Agreement so that more councillors could have a say.

It had been recommended to the finance committee that it makes another three-year SLA with increasing levels of funding from £17,400 in 2023-24, £19,140 in 2024-25 and £20,880 in 2025-26.

But it did not take long for councillors to unanimously agree to support the recommendation when they met for the council’s full monthly meeting on February 6.

Cllr Andrew Govier said: “We are talking about a large chunk of money and the finance committee felt it needed more councillors to discuss it.

“The number of people who are using the counselling service is going up and that number will continue to go up over the coming years.”

Cllrs Govier and Mike McGuffie and town clerk Dave Farrow had met with Wellington Community Counselling’s managing director Rhonda Lovell where they were told that the service’s workload had increased because of people struggling through the Covid-19 pandemic.

And Cllr Govier said: “If we didn’t have this in the town we would be looking at setting something up like it.

“I admit I’ve got some reservations about the money, but if £20,000 can save one person from getting into drink and drugs and stop them from committing suicide, then it’s got to be money well spent.

“I’m comfortable in my own heart that this is the right level of money for us to give.”

Cllr Catherine Govier added: “It is a lot of money but this is helping people of all ages in the town and we, as a council, are here to support the town.”

Cllr Kieran Canham said: “It is so hard these days for young people to access the services they need and I do believe prevention is better than cure. The early intervention is desperately needed by young people in our town.”

But Cllr Marcus Barr, although supportive of the service, said he did not feel comfortable about such a large increase in financial support.

“We can’t look after everybody’s problems,” he said. “When do we say no? We can’t keep helping the world.”

Cllr Janet Lloyd added: “We can’t keep on bridging NHS gaps and we can’t help everybody all over the town

“But I am concerned about young people and mental health issues.”

Cllr Mike McGuffie said: “There is a definite need for this caused by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.”

And Cllr Samuel Booker gave a very personal appraisal of the situation.

“I speak from personal experience and can I safely say that this is something I could have done with when I was younger,” he said. “We should be supporting this in order to support the people of Wellington and I would be very disappointed if we didn’t.”

Cllr Booker said that he would be 100 per cent in support of it – even if the recommendation was for double the amount of money being asked for.

The council voted unanimously to support the SLA with the Wellington Community Counselling CIC group.

The Mayor, Cllr Mark Lithgow, concluded: “If we aren’t supporting the people of Wellington – what are we doing here?”