SPIRALLING inflation is leaving Okehampton Town Council facing having to launch a ‘sponsor a slate’ fundraising campaign to help meet the cost of replacing the Charter Hall roof.

Cllr Jan Goffey told fellow councillors at Monday night’s meeting that fundraising was needed to meet the cost of the long-planned project because construction costs have gone up so much recently.

‘As you can imagine, the cost of building supplies is going up so much that in fact some contractors are not even quoting for jobs because whatever they quote is already out of date,’ she said.

‘Bearing that in mind, we are going to have to do some fundraising so I’m planning to do a ‘sponsor a slate’. This will be for a nominal amount which if you were in London might be £10,000 but I was thinking that for Okey it might be more of a tenner.’

She said she and the town clerk Emma James had been looking high and low for grant funding to help make up the shortfall. ‘There is only one grant that is applicable from Defra and they have not yet decided who will run that. The wheels of Government are grinding not only slowly but at a death crawl at the moment.’ She said that all grant funding at the moment seemed to be applying solely to ‘inner cities or for village halls’. ‘Small rural market towns like we are are obviously considered to be able to manage for ourselves,’ she said.

The subject of spiralling bills also came up as the council looked at the accounts. It was highlighted that the electricity in the park-keeper’s shed was particularly pricey, with a pump running up a bill of £90 a month. ‘It is all frighteningly expensive at the moment,’ said town clerk Emma James.