Generous proposal by councillor sees Honiton Gymnastics Club offered £15,000 grant

Honiton Gymnastics Club has been awarded a grant of £15,000 after a unanimous vote by members of Honiton Town Council.

At the full January meeting held via Zoom yesterday evening (Jan 11), Cllr Carrigan proposed that Honiton Gymnastics Club receive the sum of £15,000 – after no amount was specified on their grant application.

Watch the meeting here

The proposal was voted unanimously in favour, despite the town clerk commenting that it was "quite a lot more than anyone else applied for".

There were 19 applications in total – four of which didn't meet the criteria and will be re-examined at the next meeting.

The remaining 15 grant applications total £25,756 – which councillors voted on in a block vote, agreeing to honour each of the amounts requested without question.

Councillors did not take the time to run through the list, although this was suggested by the town clerk, or discuss any of the applications individually.

Apart from Honiton Gymnastics Club, which was looked at separately.

The amount that the council will pay on grants exceeds the budget of £18,000, however it was mentioned that money would be taken out of the youth budget to cover costs.