Skipton Town Council has voted to increase its budget by 67 per cent and allocate a massive £50,000 for recreation grounds

Members also awarded a single donation of £20,000 to the Tourist Information Centre, a move which prompted the resignation of Coun Dennis Hall as chairman of the finance committee.

He has chaired the committee for four years, but told the Herald: "I am unable to accept a £20,000 grant taken from public coffers for private enterprise."

The precept, the amount the town council will raise through council tax, for 2000 to 2001 has risen to £167,490 and works out at £34.18 for band D households.

When the budget was announced last week members approved a £20,000 one off donation to the TIC even though it is now run by a private company.

Clerk Andrea Adams said: "Under section 144 of the Local Government Act a local authority is allowed to work in conjunction with any body including a private company for the advancement of tourism."

She added that the grant was a final contribution to smooth over the transition to a private company.

The huge increase in spending on the 10 Skipton recreation grounds was agreed because of safety issues.

Coun John Binns said: "Members should be aware of the problems we have been having over the past year or two. The state of the equipment is sailing very close to the wind in terms of safety."

Coun Hall added: "I have already said publicly that Skipton will have the best playgrounds in North Yorkshire and I hope this is the start."

The £50,000 will have to be split between all 10 playgrounds and £10,000 of the total will be allocated for maintenance.

Concerns were expressed that the playground committees which had already began raising money to improve their own ground would miss out on the money and those who had done nothing would just get facilities provided.

Coun Binns said: "My intention is that people who have done all the valuable work would not be penalised but get extras for their grounds."

"We must bear in mind that some have had money spent on them already such as Broughton Road. Others have had nothing spent on them for years," added Coun Marcia Turner.

Coun Paul English was also pleased that cash had been set aside for the recreation grounds and he believed it would be money well spent.

Although the band D council tax has gone up £13.62, members pointed out that the council had been prudent in past spending.

Other expenses in the budget include the £5,200 contribution to Skipton's CCTV programme, salaries of £40,000 and the new Skipton Sheep Day £1,500.

When presenting the budget to the full council, Coun Hall said members must show that the council was being realistic with the figures for the recreation grounds.

He asked for plans regarding the development of the playgrounds be drawn up as soon as possible so that the public could see the work being started.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.