A TOWN councillor is “outraged” at the suggestion to charge local volunteer organisations to hold annual events on Silloth Green.

At the last council meeting held this month, it was suggested that every event should be charged for being on the Green and any revenue from the fairground should be paid over to the authority.

The minutes of the meeting state that previously the council used to financially contribute to the events but is unable to do so now, and for the past 20 years volunteers have been able to use the green for free.

Councillor Owen Martin thinks this is a bad move. He said: “This will most certainly have a negative impact on the town and the number of events will most likely reduce.

“I was outraged at the suggestion to charge volunteer organisations, after the thousands of hours that volunteers have put into the town, it’s a big kick in the teeth for them.

“It saddens me to think that the town will lose such vital events. Volunteering has such a positive impact in the town and I would hate to think what kind of effect this would have on people’s willingness to volunteer.”

Tony Markley, Mayor for Silloth, said: “It was a remark, nothing was voted on and it wasn’t on the agenda.

“It was resolved that myself and the town clerk would meet with Allerdale to clarify the situation before a decision is made and report this back to the full council.

“We have no view to charge people to use the Green and this was decided on at September’s council meeting last year.

“The events in this town are important.”

However, the item was included in both the agenda and minutes of March 11. 

In the minutes it said: "It was suggested that every event should be charged for being on the green and any revenue from the fairground should be paid over to the council."

A comment was made that the council did not want to penalise local events, but that there "needed to be more transparency".

Silloth Green hosts a number of events throughout the year such as, Silloth Green Day, Silloth Pride and Silloth Carnival and Mr Martin feels charging organisations to use the Green could put people in an impossible position leading to these events being cancelled.

Mr Martin along with John Cook and Angus Emmerson fought to keep the Green free for use. Since the meeting he has set up a petition to gauge the opinion of the town so this can be fed back to the council at the next meeting.

“The economic effects on the town will be very apparent if we are forced into a position where we have to find money to hire the Green which is supposed to be a community asset,” added Mr Martin.

“If anything the council should be showing more financial support to these local events in times where grants and support is harder to find. It seems individuals wish to see nothing on in Silloth, it’s a sad time.”

Since setting up the petition, there have been more than 600 signatures in favour of keeping the Green free for use. The support has overwhelmed Mr Martin. He said: “The public support has been overwhelming, it makes me proud to be part of such a brilliant community.”