A ROW broke out at Evesham Town Council when members were asked to decide whether they should agree to give four groups a total of £12,570.

In previous years money has been given to the Evesham Volunteer Centre, the South Worcestershire Citizens Advice Bureau, the Evesham Historical Society and the Evesham Twinning Association.

But at the meeting on Monday, councillors argued over whether donations should be granted to the Evesham Historical Society, which requested £1,800 and the Twinning Association, which asked for £450, as neither are registered charities.

Evesham Volunteer Centre asked for £6,000 and the Citizens Advice Bureau requested £6,120.

Eventually, 10 councillors voted to donate the requested amounts to the Twinning Association and the Citizens Advice Bureau; £4,500 to the Volunteer Centre and nothing to the Historical Society, while three voted against with one abstention.

Councillor Gerry O’Donnell questioned whether one group required the money: “The Historical Society has £37,000 in their account.

“Do they want their grant – as it’s a case of same old, same old?”

Coun Andy Dyke agreed, and said he had a problem giving £1,800 to a group with so much money in the bank.

But two councillors, Jim Bulman and Patrick Boyd said they thought the council should only support charities and that the gwinning group should also be removed from the donation list.

Coun Bulman said: “I feel in the current financial situation we should concentrate on the charities,” he said.

“It’s a travesty of justice to give money to an organisation that isn’t a charity.

“If you are going to do that to the Historical Society, surely we should do that to the Twinning Association.

“It’s not a charity, they do some useful town bonding work but I question its use to the town.”

Historical Society treasurer Stan Brotherton said the grant has always been given to the group due to their work with the Almonry Museum.

“The Vale of Evesham Historical Society funded the Almonry since its creation in 1951. The society was a voluntary curator until 1997.”