TOWN councillors have agreed to hand out through ‘gritted teeth’ another £3,000 towards the resurfacing of all the paths in Wellington Park.

Taunton Deane Borough Council had set aside £35,000 to resurface the main perimeter path and the bandstand area.

But members of Wellington Town Council last month gave their seal of approval to contributing up to £10,000 towards repairing the inner paths as well at the same time.

The work has been carried out but the bill for the inner paths has topped more than £16,000 and Taunton Deane asked the town council to contribute half of the extra £6,000 needed.

Town councillors were slightly miffed, however, when council clerk Greg Dyke said in a report last week that Taunton Deane had suggested that it they were unable to contribute a further £3,000 then it would be ‘it might mean the grass won’t be cut as often this year’.

Cllr Ben Shepherd said: “I don’t think it’s good that Taunton Deane says they won’t cut the grass if we don’t give some more money, but I think we should give them the money through gritted teeth.”

Cllr John Thorne said: “While I accept the work is excellent and the footpaths are great – they have just been Tarmacked.”

He said he was expecting the footpaths to have been more in keeping with Wellington Park’s Edwardian past.

But he added: “It looks like a road has been put in all the way around – it doesn’t complement the beauty of the park.

“I wouldn’t be happy spending another £3,000 on this.”

And Cllr Marcus Barr said: “We were expecting to get change out of this because we said ‘up to’ £10,000.”

But Cllr Andy Govier said: “Doing all of this work in one hit has saved the public purse and it’s a job well done – although not to everyone’s taste.”

The Mayor, Cllr Gary James, paid tribute to the workers who had ‘gone in there and did the job – they’ve done great’.

Cllr Vivienne Stock-Williams, who is a member of Wellington Town Council, but also executive spokesman for sports, parks and leisure at Taunton Deane, reassured Cllr Thorne that the Tarmac would fade in time and become more ‘grey looking, than black’.