COUNCIL officers have been slated for their handling of a £100,000 empowerment fund – set up to support micro-projects across Clackmannanshire.

The Community Empowerment Fund was launched in November last year, with organisations invited to bid for their share of the cash.

However, one group said the process left them feeling "used and abused" and claimed the council should be "hanging their heads in shame".

The Delph Pond Forum had asked for £5,000 to complete a feasibility study into upgrading the path near the Ladywell site and to highlight what is an important heritage feature in the area.

They obtained a number of quotes, and would raise any additional funds themselves.

However, officials awarded the group £1,790 and added that all money must be spent by the end of the financial year.

They then had to refuse the award as they could not cover the remaining costs of the study within the timeframe they were given.

Janette McGowan, chair of the forum, wrote to council officers accusing them of gross negligence and a lack of professionalism.

She said: "We are at a loss for words to describe the experience of taking part in this chaotically-organised exercise.

"We accept that just because we submitted an application for the funding, that did not mean what we would get a share of the £10k pot allocated for Tullibody projects.

"Our understanding is that now only £1,479 of the funding will awarded to Tullibody. So where is the rest of the £9k for Tullibody being allocated?"

Clackmannanshire Council say the fund had been split into capital and revenue projects, with the latter proving too popular to cope with demand.

However, Ms McGowan argues the distinction between the two pots was not made clear, leading to a lot of confusion for the groups applying.

She added: "I sincerely hope lessons are learned from this. The officials concerned should be hanging their heads in shame at their failure not only to distribute the funding appropriately and timeously, but also in a professional manner.

"There will be no celebrating in Tullibody...only gross frustration, disappointment and a feeling of being used and abused."

According to the list of awards released by the council, less than £74,000 from the total was allocated.

When asked, the council said the remaining funds would be reported as underspend and could be "rolled forward for future years' spending".

However, Ms McGowan later told the Advertiser: "The whole experience was a bit of a shambles; everything was short notice, and we were expected to jump through all these hoops.

"It was supposed to be a Community Matters Fund, but in the end the community didn't matter."

Tullibody History Group also applied for funding to spruce up the plaque on the war memorial and came second after the public vote.

However, it was only then they were told that they could not receive the money because the memorial was on grounds owned by the council.

Officials described this as an "unfortunate oversight", with a grant for the Tillicoultry War Memorial qualifying because it is not on council land.

Chris Calder, of the Tullibody History Group, said: "We're very disappointed. Yet again Tullibody loses out – it always seems to for some reason.

"There just seems to be a lot of confusion as to how this process worked. We came second in the vote only to be told then we didn't qualify; it should never have gotten that far in that case.

"All we wanted was to make the town proud, but all we get is brick walls."

Clackmannanshire Council is adamant that officers worked to serve the county and said: "We tried to keep the funding fair for all communities; however, by the nature of the process it was not always possible to."

A spokesperson added: "We’re grateful for the enthusiasm and support of communities for this pilot project.

"This is the first time that this kind of approach to funding has been tried, and all the experiences will be absorbed as lessons learnt and will be used to improve the running of any future Community Matters project."