Forum wants running costs including Sir Halley floodlights looked at

Officials are being asked to look at increasing the cost of what organisations pay for the use of council facilities due to rising costs.

The rising expense of turning on the floodlights at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field was one of the examples given by Spalding Town Forum as to why South Holland District Council should look into whether it was able to raise charges for using the facilities.

It came before the forum as the budget relating to the Spalding Special Expense, the portion of council tax paid by residents of the town to go to its amenities, would be £2,200 over what was budgeted for.

Last week’s meeting of the town forum heard the deficit will be made up from the reserves.

Its chairman Coun Roger Gambba-Jones asked the council to look into increasing the facility charges outside of set budgets: “We need flexibility in these extraordinary circumstances.

“If we get this incredible spike (in bills) and the one I’m thinking of is the football club when they fire up the floodlights as that’s a massive drain on the electricity bill. There’s a lot of politics involved in that first instance as a lot of people have said they don’t believe they paid full whack in the first place.”

Two football clubs regularly use the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field, Spalding United and Pinchbeck United the latter of whom have played homes games there for the last few years. Both regularly play mid-week games.

The cost of running the changing rooms at Monkshouse Lane was also raised at the meeting.

Coun Gambba-Jones said: “On behalf of the town forum and the people of Spalding who are picking up the significant amount of the cost, it’s beholden of us to at least make that enquiry and get a better understanding of how we’re covering that ever increasing cost of fuel and energy going forward.

“We must get that answer no matter how awkward it might be

“Having tax payers, be it Spalding or South Holland, pick up the bill for anyone hiring the facilities when we get a huge spike in utility costs I consider unacceptable. We owe it to our tax payers to see what the circumstances are.”