COUNCILLORS will discuss again whether to increase the town council’s level of funding support for a Wellington-based counselling service.

The Wellington Community Counselling CIC group is in the final year of a three-year agreement with Wellington Town Council where the authority has paid £12,000 per annum.

A meeting was held on January 6 where Cllrs Andrew Govier and Mike McGuffie and town clerk Dave Farrow met with Wellington Community Counselling’s managing director Rhonda Lovell.

What became apparent, however, during their meeting was that the cost of delivering the service had increased and it was likely that demand for the service would also go up with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis causing extra pressure on low-income families and causing extra mental health issues for local people.

A council report said: “During the meeting Rhonda explained their ongoing situation and likely increase in demand and costs.

“They are currently receiving ten referrals per week and providing counselling to 50 people per month. This equates to 2,400 counselling hours per year. It is expected that this figure will rise sa the organisation grows and changes.”

And it was recommended to the town council’s finance committee on Tuesday (January 17) that it makes another three-year service level agreement 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 sit well with everyone. Cllr John Thorne said: “I can’t support this. I know they do a lot of good work, but we aren’t here to be an alternative service to the NHS; we are here to help out.

“We have to look after council taxpayers’ money, but I think spending £20,000 a year on this is excessive.”

Cllr Thorne added: “I’m not suggesting we don’t continue supporting this, but I just think that the proposed amount is excessive.

“Perhaps this should be put back to another meeting when there are more councillors here to discuss the matter?”

Cllr Andrew Govier said: “We went through this in some detail and the bottom line is that this organisation has delivered.

“It’s tough out there at the moment and people will need the support. I’m keen to see this process going and I think that what we proposed was a fair way going forward.”

Cllr Barr suggested that the matter should be discussed by the full council – a move which was supported by other councillors.

The finance committee agreed that a proper discussion needed to be had with the full council rather than just a few councillors.