A GROUP hoping to bring a new lease of life to a dilapidated community building has had an application for funding turned down by the local parish council.

The Falcon Centre Users Group was set up to find a new use for the building in Wylam.

The group had produced a pre-feasibility study planned to identify unmet needs for community provision in Wylam, and asked Wylam Parish Council for grant aid funding to pay for some of the work.

However, at this month's meeting, the parish council refused the request on the grounds that the group was not yet constituted, and the fact the grant request was made retrospectively.

Coun. Anne Francis said: “I don’t think there’s any way we can give them money. If we’re giving money away it has to be a constituted group.”

Coun. Steven Duckworth, the council’s chairman, spoke in support of the group - but was also hesitant to agree to give them money.

He said: “I’m quite supportive of this group and I think it’s a reasonable piece of work and I think the aspiration is reasonable.

“I just don’t think we can, in all conciousness, support the bid. We should support the group more generally.”