Councillors to dip into their own pockets for charity event
Correspondence had asked Council to consider taking a table at the event.
A number of local councillors have opted to attend a charity event privately following a request for the organisation to attend as a corporate body.
Causeway Coast and Glens Corporate Policy and Resources Committee were considering a request from the Riding for the Disabled Association to take or sponsor a table at their charity ball in October.
Tickets to the event, at the Bushtown Hotel, Coleraine were to be priced at £66 per person, and while a proposal to accept the offer was made, Cllr Darryl Wilson had an alternative suggestion.
“I know Riding for the Disabled and the work they do very, very well,” he said.
“But, as a very large Borough, with numerous charities, it's very difficult, I feel, for us to single out or pick any specific charity.
“I would happily take a seat at a table and pay for it myself if I could get seven other councillors to join me at a table of eight, and pay it out of our own pocket. It's a fantastic charity and this is going to be a great fundraiser for them, but I don't want to choose, as an organisation, one charity over another.
Cllr Sean McGlinchey took Cllr Wilson up on his suggestion. “I have done charity myself for the Disabled Riding School in Maghera, and I would definitely support it. It's a fair point of Cllr Wilson's and I'd be willing to take a seat at that too,” he told the Committee.
The decision means the Borough will not be officially attending the event or purchasing a table, but that individual councillors will attend on their behalf.