Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group Cllr Terry Cox declared himself "very upset" by the decision of the Liberal democrats to nearly half the money available for community grants. Liberal Democrat Leader Jerry Patterson had tried to argue that £100,000 was being cut from the total grants budget of £733,000 however it soon became clear that £500,000 of this was already tied up in long term partnership agreements that the council could not get out of. Leaving a total community budget before the cut of £233,000 which now stands £133,000, a cut of 43%.Cllr Cox said "A large number of community groups are going to suffer and be prevented from doing very valuable activities in the community because of this short sighted Lib Dem attack. The public are being punished for their financial mistakes"