COUNCILLORS said they felt uncomfortable with the “tone” of a grant application asking for funding to help support providing Black History Month workshops in Wellington primary schools.

The BLACK* Artists on the Move group applied to Wellington Town Council’s policy and finance committee on October 14 for £3,000 to support eight planned workshops at local schools – Wellesley Park, St John’s, Rockwell Green and Beech Grove.

But councillors were less than impressed with the application and decided to turn it down.

The group said in its application that it wanted to harness Black History Month to “celebrate in a deep, thoughtful and creative way the achievements of black creatives”, such as legendary Jamaican singer, songwriter and guitarist Bob Marley; British writer, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing Benjamin Zephaniah; and South African singer, actress and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba.

And the application document added: “As the recent race riots have demonstrated, racism is rife in the British society and children and young people are deeply affected by it every day.”

The applicants also made further claims about underlying racism in Britain which left some councillors feeling decidedly uncomfortable talking about the application, let alone supporting it.

Cllr John Thorne said: “It is a poor application and I don’t think we should support it. I don’t like the tone of the application either.”

And Cllr Keith Wheatley added: “I wasn’t happy with the tone of the application – it was sloppy and with general assumptions.

“We all need to tread carefully on this and I actually feel uncomfortable speaking about this.”

The BLACK* Artists on the Move application added: “We appreciate that funds are limited, but at this crucial time when we have a team of experts able to make a measurable difference, we are keen to work with as many primary children living in Wellington as possible.

“This is why we would also like to offer a Saturday family workshop in the library so that any children who miss out in school have an additional opportunity to experience our work.”

But although some councillors said it was an important subject which needed to be addressed and a project which they should support, they felt the application for grant funding was not good enough and lacked detail.

The Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, said: “It is a pity there isn’t anyone from the organisation here to talk more about the application.”

Cllr Justin Cole said: “I think this is something we should support, but the actual application isn’t good enough. I would love to say “yes” to this, but I don’t think we can.”

Cllr Steve Mercer said: “There are so many questions about this application. It is something we would like to support, but the detail lets this application down.”

And Cllr Andrew Govier said: “I would like to support this, but we should go back to the applicants with our questions. It is an important subject and I would like to support it, but we need more information.”