Mayor of Wellington Cllr Janet Lloyd says she has been ‘shocked’ at some of the issues being faced by people in the town.

She made the comment after Wellington Counselling CIC asked the town council for a grant of £6,000 towards its costs for the next 12 months.

Bob House, of Wellington Counselling CIC, told councillors at their latest meeting demand was growing for counselling for a range of mental health problems in the town.

Cllr Lloyd admitted she had been surprised at how bad things were for some individuals and families.

“I have been quite shocked at finding out more about what is going on in the town and it’s often the same people and families who are needing the help,” she said. “This needs to be sorted.”

Mr House attended the meeting of Wellington Town Council’s finance committee to give more information related to the grant application for £6,000.

Councillors heard the funding would go towards the £36,000 a year costs.

A report said: “The group works exclusively with Wellington residents providing free or low-cost counselling and has been running for two years now.

“Part-funding has also been sought from other agencies and a letter of support from a local GP accompanies the application.”

Mr House added: “I want to emphasise there is a real need for this in Wellington.

“There are less and less services available to help those with mental health issues, but the demand is there and it is increasing.”

Mr House said the service was dealing with more and more incidents of family breakdown and poverty, as well as mental health issues.

“We want to serve the town and help towards getting a healthy community,” he said. “We want to provide low-cost or free counselling at the point of delivery.

“If we can get whole families in for counselling it gives us half a chance of allowing children to grow up in a safer environment.”

He said the service currently had five counsellors who were ‘fully stretched’ and that the group did not have the finances to meet the demand.

“It costs us between £2,000 and £3,000 a month to run the service,” he said.

Cllr Mark Lithgow said: “When there is a child with problems at school that is red flag for the whole family.”

But Cllr John Thorne was not happy about supporting the application.

“This application is looking for a lot of money – 40 per cent of our total grants budget,” he said. “But they’ve provided no financial information to back it up. I think we should defer it and look it into it more fully.”

Cllr Andrew Govier said he felt the council should carry out a review of what services were available for people with mental health issues in Wellington.

“But if we can turn one person around it would be money well spent and £6,000 over a lifetime is a paltry sum,” he said.

Councillors agreed to defer the grant application.