A CHARITY which helps people experiencing food poverty is still relying on the council to allocate emergency funding as a “stop-gap” measure.

West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare was unsuccessful in its application to the Scottish Government last May for £132,087 funding for a three-year period.

Had the bid been successful, the money would have stabilised the organisation’s circumstances from April 2020.

In December, a motion to make £50,000 available from council reserves to keep foodshare running in the current financial year was agreed at full council.

The local authority had already agreed to grant the organisation £25,000 a year for four years from 2019/20.

Leader of the council Jonathan McColl was supposed to invite staff from the organisation to the full council meeting last Wednesday but was unable to do so.

Councillor McColl apologised to members for the mistake and said he would invite them to the next one.

During the debate, members heard briefly from a member of the foodshare, who was sitting in the public gallery, about the financial needs of the group.

Following this, both the SNP and Labour withdrew their recommendations regarding possible funding to allow West Dubartonshire Community Foodshare to be officially invited to speak at May’s full council.

Cllr McColl said: “It is particularly pleasing that council officers have been able to assist West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare without the need for the masses of money that was available to them.

“My understanding is that they have only had to use £1,320 so that’s incredibly helpful. I think it is important that we do continue to have a contingency fund and we continue to support West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare.

“This is a really important service for our local area. We want to make sure they can continue to provide those services to local people.”

The Labour group had proposed that the council noted the decision to grant £50,000 as a stop-gap for 2019/20 and agreed to extend the fund to September 2022.

They also suggested the local authority agreed to provide a further one-off ear marked contingency fund of up to £70,000, that could also be drawn on up to September 2022.

Councillor John Mooney said: “It is hoped that the organisation will be successful in securing external funding in the next two and a half years but in the event that they aren’t it would be prudent to extend the contingency up to the value of the anticipated deficit.”

Both parties withdrew their recommendations and agreed to make their final decision in May.

The West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare will continue to benefit from council funding until then.