WELLINGTON Bowls Club has been told it must use its own funds to pay for a new entrance system at its clubhouse.

The club had asked Wellington Town Council for a £1,000 grant towards the installation of a swipe fob system for the front door of its headquarters in Corams Lane.

But town councillors agreed earlier this month to turn the application down because they felt the club had more than enough money in the bank to pay for the overall £2,324 cost of the planned project.

Councillors were reminded that they had previously given grants to the club – £2,500 in 2015-16 towards a new roof and £1,000 in 2016-17 for a new cooker.

Cllr John Thorne said: “The bowls club is pushing it a bit this time for us to help pay towards something that is just to allow their members to open and lock their front door. I think they need to look at doing this themselves.”

Cllr Marcus Barr said that perhaps the council should look at supporting other groups in the area which do not have any funds of their own.

“We are looked upon as a soft touch – go to the town council and it will give,” he said. “I’m not in favour of supporting the bowls club on this as they are above and beyond the means of self-funding.

“We’ve been supportive of the bowls club in the past but elsewhere there are groups where they might not have any funds of their own at all.”

Cllr Vivienne Stock-Williams added that the latest bowls club grant application appeared to be a ‘nice to have’ rather than a ‘need to have’ project.

The council’s finance committee turned the grant application down initially and this decision was later ratified by the full council.