WELLINGTON Town Council approved three grants totalling £4,175 to local organisations at its February meeting.

It made a grant of £1,000 to Wellington Tennis Club towards the overall cost of £22,600 of providing a new court. 

Councillors were told that the club had plans to develop a third court. Its aim is to increase opportunities available to play tennis for members, the public and wheelchair players. The plan is to demolish the existing half court which is in bad repair and replace it with a new full-sized court.

A grant of £1,600 was approved for Transition Town Wellington’s Sustainable Food Group towards the cost of planting fruit and nut trees and bushes in community spaces around Wellington including the community woodland near the sports centre, the Deane’s rugby pitch area, the playing fields area, Mount Pleasant and the bowls club area. The resulting harvest will be for the residents of Wellington to use. In the future it is planned to carry out similar planting at Dobree Park community area in Rockwell Green and at The Basins.

“They do a good job and we should support them,” said the mayor, Janet Lloyd.

The third grant was for £1,075 for the WHERE partially-sighted group which brings together those who suffer from sensory loss and provides an opportunity for members to go out for a social afternoon at the centre to meet with their friends and also provides trips.

The council put £15,000 in its grants budget for the current financial year which ends next month and has £2,556 left.

The council deferred an application from West Buckland Friendship Club for a grant of £500. Members heard that the club provides regular group meetings and outings  for senior and disabled villagers in the rural area around West Buckland and Wellington. Membership has grown from 14 to 98 in its first three years and 70 per cent of its members are from Wellington.

The mayor said the council would be asking the club if it had applied to West Buckland Parish Council for a grant.

Cllr Ross Henley, the county councillor for the area, said he was giving the club £250 from his county council community budget.