COUNCILLORS have again supported a charity which works with local schools to encourage Wellington children to lead healthier lifestyles as they grow up.

Life Education Wessex provides ‘helping children make healthy choices’ school sessions and is planning one for Wellesley Park Primary School.

The charity, which has been running since 1993, provides health education programmes across Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Hampshire giving children skills and knowledge to make healthy choices in life, including topics such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and psychoactive substances.

It asked the town council for a £740 grant to help fund the Wellesley Park session.

Cllr Andrew Govier said: “I would like to support this application. I know I’ve said it before about Life Education Wessex, but if they help one person to make healthy lifestyle choices then this grant is worth its weight in gold.”

But there was concern the charity already received a grant this year and the council had overspent its £15,000 grants budget.

Cllr John Thorne said: “We’ve already given them a grant this year for work they were doing at Rockwell Green. I thought we only gave an organisation one grant a year, so I can’t support this.”

Councillors heard the charity was awarded £310 last October to work with Rockwell Green Primary School.

The Mayor, Cllr Marcus Barr, said: “This charity does a lot of great work in the area, but perhaps we need to explain to them that they need to submit one application a year to cover the work it is going to do.”

Deputy town clerk Alice Kendall said: “Life Education Wessex likes to make sure that the events are actually going to happen before applying for a grant.”

Cllr Mike McGuffie said: “I know this grant would blow the budget by a small degree, but I’m in favour of this application.”

Cllr Andrew Govier said the charity would probably be criticised if it made a one-off grant application on the basis that it ‘might’ hold sessions in Wellington.

Councillors agreed to award the £740 and asked that a review of the grants policy should be carried out.