Worthing set to get Council Magazine at the expense of community groups.

7.47.22am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 15th Nov 2006

Liberal Democrat Councillors last week discussed the Tory Cabinet's decision to publish a 2nd edition of the town's "Vibe" magazine and proposed that the budget is given to support the voluntary and community sector in the town.The Tory committee members voted against the £9,000 being given to the Worthing Shopmobility Scheme before Christmas, instead supporting the printing of "Vibe" Magazine,ironically to consult residents on the budget shortfalls!

Last month the Cabinet agreed spent up to £9,000 from the Capacity issues reserve budget on a second edition of this controversial magazine that failed to reach many households in the town with the first edition because of distribution problems.

Tory Councillors voted to spend a further £27,000 each year, for the next three years to produce 3 copies of Vibe a year, despite an amendment from the Lib Dems to transfer this money to Local Community Groups instead.

speaking after the Scrutiny meeting, Cllr Bob Smytherman (Leader of the Opposition Group in Worthing) said "This is the second year that no budget provision has been made available for the Shopmobility charity and although the Council faces

significant financial restraints in the coming budget, I was hopeful that the Tory Councillors present would much prefer to support funding for Shopmobility!"

Cllr Geraldine Lissenburg (Spokesperson for Community Services) added "All these services, provided by the voluntary sector are vital to a great many local residents and those residents that attended the meeting had their hopes "dashed" as funding for the Vibe Magazine was supported rather than Shopmobility."

"I still firmly believe it was premature to agree to publish a second edition of Vibe until it could have be proven that a magazine could be self financing through advertising."