AN EVENT designed at bringing the diverse communities of Wellington together has been supported by local councillors – but only just.

The Community Council Somerset applied to Wellington Town Council for a £1,150 grant towards the cost of the Wellington Together event which is being held at Court Fields School on Saturday, October 26, between 11am and 3pm.

The event will include music, dance, art and delicious food from around the world as Wellington’s diverse communities come together.

But not all members of the council’s policy and finance committee were keen on supporting the grant application when they met on October 14.

The Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, said: “I’m not at all happy about this application. We haven’t, as a town council, been involved in this until now and so this is now a late application.

“I don’t have any faith in the organisation of the event – we’ve been kept in the dark.”

Cllr John Thorne was critical of the Wellington Together concept saying that there were regular events held during the year where the Wellington community came together such as the annual street fair.

“If minority groups want to get involved with the community then they need to come to the events that are put on,” he said.

Cllr Thorne said he was concerned that the application talked about the summer riots which took place in communities across the country and racism. “We haven’t got those problems here in Wellington,” he said.

But some councillors were clearly left uncomfortable with Cllr Thorne’s comments.

Cllr Andrew Govier said: “The diversity in the Wellington community has gone up over the last ten years and Wellington Together is just the sort of event we need.

“I have seen people of all races at lots of events in the town and so I dismiss what Cllr Thorne said about that and I don’t find it attractive the tack of what Cllr Thorne is saying either.

“This Wellington Together event is worthwhile, although I accept the application is a bit late in the day. But I would like to see this go-ahead.”

Cllr Sean Pringle-Kosikowsky added: “It’s not ok any more for people just to say that they are not racist. People have to be pro-active and welcome people in and educate others.”

Cllr Keith Wheatley said: “The application is a bit of a muddle, but this is an event full of goodwill. I think we need to overcome the muddle and show our goodwill for this event.

“It’s not a good look for this council if we don’t support this or be involved.”

Cllr Justin Cole said that although he supported the event, he was looking at it purely from the council’s process of awarding grants.

And he said: “This application is very late in the day. It was said earlier this year that our help wasn’t needed and so perhaps we should say ‘no’ this time, but get involved next year.”

Councillors voted narrowly 4-3 in favour of supporting the application.