WOTTON town councillors have agreed to provide a funding boost to a charity to cement the continuation of its Friday drop-in sessions.

At Monday’s town council meeting it was discussed that while The Door Youth Project had received £10,000 from Gloucestershire’s police and crime commissioner, it still faced a strain on its resources.

The Door aims to provide young people with safe spaces to socialise and feel supported through a varied programme of services and activities.

Its funding pressures would put the 3-5pm Wotton Youth Centre drop-in sessions at risk of being cut from this September.

After representatives from The Door contacted the town council about this issue, Wotton mayor Paul Smith inquired about the shortfall in funding to continue the service in Wotton.

The Door stated that £2,500 of their funding would go towards the drop-in sessions in Wotton but the shortfall was £1,800.

Cllr John Cordwell said: “More children attend the Friday events in Wotton than at any of their other events.”

Town mayor Paul Smith followed this up with: “This is a pretty good bargain for their great track record.”

Councillors voted unanimously to pay for the shortfall in funding to allow the Friday drop-in to continue.

This discussion was preceded by a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the Manchester and London terror attacks, the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy and the terror incident in Finsbury Park.

At last month’s Annual Parish Assembly it was published by the town council that its total expenditure for 2016/17 was £302,598 and total income was £328,429.

The town council also gave a considerable amount of grants totalling £46,530, over half of which was the contribution to Wotton Swimming Pool of £28,000.

It was agreed last month that the lease for Wotton Heritage Centre would be extended by a further seven years from the current 1994 lease.

After hard work from Cllrs Roger Claydon and Paul Smith and Jeff Walshe from the centre the deal was agreed unanimously.

Councillor Paul Barton stated on Monday that he and the allotment committee were considering allotments for children aged 6-14, which could be a smaller size of one eighth of a plot.

Two town councillors have also resigned from their posts, Alastair Kendall due to work commitments, and Andra Proctor due to health reasons.

An election will be held on Wednesday, July 26 to find two replacements, one from the Main ward and one for South.