LYME REGIS: The town council has said sorry to The Hub after backing a £10,000 grant in error in a service level agreement.

The service level agreement (SLA) was in place between the authority and Lyme Regis Development Trust regarding The Hub from April, 1 2011 to March 31 of this year. This allowed the council to provide funding of £10,000 per year to the Trust for The Hub.

But as the SLA ended in March, there was no formal agreement in place for the current 2014/15 financial year.

However, when the budget was agreed for 2014/15, the £10,000 for The Hub was identified in the budget.

At last week’s full council meeting, Cllr Mark Gage apologised to other members for the drafting error.

He said: “As the SLA was not in force we have not followed the correct process as a town council.

“We need to resolve this situation with a full report which will come to the next strategy and policy committee meeting. To move forward, what we need to do is to make sure any payments made are done so under the correct process and procedures.

“I apologise for the disruption this would have caused to the council, to The Hub and to the many young people in the town who use the excellent and growing facility.”

Cllr Owen Lovell said he understood that only £5,000 of the £10,000 has been paid to The Hub, while Cllr Anita Williams suggested bringing the payment back and considering a grant application for The Hub.

She added: “I believe because the payment was done without authority it is void so we have no choice but to reclaim the money. That is why we now need to put through a grant application as quickly as we can.”

Cllr Cheryl Reynolds called for the service level agreement with The Hub to be extended.

She added: “It seems to me that when the council makes a mistake we do not admit to it. At the bottom of this pile are the kids at The Hub and the kids in this town who are being strangled by bureaucracy.”