Village brass festival faces axe due to cuts

A village's annual brass festival could be scrapped next year due to a local authority's proposed funding cuts, a councillor has said.

Reform-led Durham County Council has suggested cutting the entirety of the £1m grant it currently gives out each year to some of its town and parish councils.

Trimdon parish councillor Paul Trippett said if the cuts went ahead, his parish would lose about £21,000 from its £191,000 annual budget and so would not be able to afford to bring the Durham Brass Festival back to the village.

Durham County Council deputy leader Darren Grimes previously said the local authority had to look at "every option available" to tackle its budget deficit.

Earlier this month, the county council agreed to remove 100% council tax reductions for low-earners, meaning most residents would have to pay at least 10% of their bills from April.

The £1m grant money was aimed at partly compensating town and parish councils due to the number of their poorer residents claiming the tax reductions.

Trippett said the parish spent about £6,500 a year to bring the brass festival, which travels around County Durham, to the village.

He said the local authority's proposed cuts, which the parish was assuming would go through and so had reflected in its budget for the next financial year, meant it could no longer justify this cost.

He said the festival, which had come to the village for the past six years, had been a "great hit".

"Several hundred people come and absolutely thoroughly enjoy themselves," he said, adding: "It was something that brought the parish together."

Trippett said the people of Trimdon would be "bitterly disappointed" when they discovered the concert would be cancelled.

County Durham Association of Local Councils (CDALC), which represents town and parish councils in the region, said it had written to Durham County Council protesting the cuts.

It said the cuts would have a "disproportionate" effect on the most deprived communities in County Durham.

It also said the drop in funds would lead to the region's parish and town council's increasing its portion of council tax bills.

"The axing of grants may provide savings for Durham County Council but ultimately it passes these from the whole of the county to the individual council taxpayers of the poorest parts of the county," it said.

Grimes previously said the council was facing a £72m budget gap over the next four years.

"Like the county council, town and parish councils are expected to operate within their own budgets, therefore expectations to pass on funding that we do not have demonstrates the situation we are in," he said.

He said the parish grant money had been paid out by Durham County Council "long after most other councils made the decision to end them", but added the proposed cuts were still in consultation.

"We must look at every option available to meet this deficit without overburdening the taxpayer," Grimes said.

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