Shropshire Council defends aid cash use for website
Council chiefs have defended plans to spend £20,000 on a website, using money from a pot set aside for people on the bread line.
Shropshire Council says the new site is needed to make better use of nearly £500,000 in "poverty funding".
But the move has come under fire from a councillor who says it could just as easily be advertised on the council's own website.
Ludlow councillor Viv Parry said she "just couldn't believe" the money could be spent on developing a website.
"I know people who are really desperate for support," she added.
"Why can't the council put this information on its own website?"
It comes after it was revealed that just £73,750 of a £467,992 poverty funding grant for 2013/14 was spent.
The money came from the Local Support and Prevention Fund, which replaced community grants and crisis loans.
Councillor Mike Owen, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for resources, said the council planned to work with partners on a "welfare board" to help people.
He said: "We will work together to provide support and assistance in a way that helps people address those underlying issues and reduce the dependency that develops when they are not tackled.
"This may be through debt advice, housing advice, help with budgeting or return to work schemes.
"Instead of direct money payments to an individual, the partnership will buy direct what the individual may need and give them the end product, rather than the money.
"Cash grants will still be provided where this represents the best option in the circumstances, but partners will always look first at alternative ways to provide that support.
"Without dealing with these issues which have resulted in this crisis point, the individual is likely to return to fund in the future as their circumstances won't have changed."
