ORGANISATIONS and facilities which are an integral part of Clevedon’s community have been given a financial boost by the town council.

The authority has decided to give significant grants to facilities such as the community centre in Princes Road, The Barn youth centre in Great Western Road and the YMCA in Marson Road.

Using money originally earmarked to buy land for allotments, which has now been deemed unsuitable, the town council decided it wants to give some stability to the organisations which are in need of financial backing.

Before agreeing grants, the council asked those groups hoping for support to provide a three-year business plan to allow members to assess how such funds would be used.

It was subsequently decided in 2013/14 the council will give £20,00 to Clevedon’s Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) which provides advice to residents on a wide variety of issues, £3,000 to the community centre which is in need of help to bring its facilities up to standard, £10,000 to the YMCA which provides youth work, sport groups as well as sessions for people with additional needs, £18,439 to The Barn which runs youth sessions and provides support for local families and £3,000 for the rangers who organise children’s activities at the Salthouse Fields.

For the following two years, the council has set aside a total of £47,500 for the CAB, £6,000 for the community centre, £20,000 for the YMCA and £5,000 for the rangers.

It was also agreed it will consider providing match funding in 2014/15 to help support bids for money from the Heritage Lottery Fund to carry out projects at the Curzon cinema, the pier and Marine Lake.

Finance and general policy committee chairman Carl Francis-Pester said: “We wanted to give some certainty to these organisations.

“The way we have approached it is that those organisations would have a knock-on effect to us if they did have adequate support.

“We have done this to reflect that belief.”