Grant mystery clears

Press, 13 September 1988, Page 7

Grant mystery clears

A grant the Christchurch City Council did not really know it had made was also one the Sumner Lifeboat Institution did not know it had received.

But to the satisfaction of both parties it will continue.

Since 1946 the council has waived or] met the lifeboat’s heating bill. The City Treasurer, Mr Bob Lineham, reported to the policy and finance committee yesterday he had discovered the council had for many years met the lifeboat institution’s power bill. The bill was charged against the works and planning department budget. With escalating power costs and a high account this winter, he wrote to the institution suggesting it might like to pay its own bill.

The institution responded with the history of the subsidy, dating from 1946. The electricity is used for heaters in the boathouse to inhibit corrosion and keep maintenance bills down.

Then, said the institution, the council not only waived the power bill but gave an equivalent amount as a cash grant. Some time later this was adjusted to the' council meeting electricity charges. In 1983, the council undertook to give the institution an inflation-adjusted annual grant of $2OOO for slipway maintenance and also agreed to contribute towards costs.

Mr Lineham suggested the $l5OO to $2OOO annual power bill fell within the definition of costs and recommended the council continue to pay it. Bemused councillors agreed, and the charges will be set against the policy and finance budget as a grant. “I didn’t know anything about the council paying this subsidy,” said more than one councillor.

“To be fair,” said Mr Lineham, “the institution did not really know it was receiving the subsidy either until we wrote to it.”