A FORMER council leader has accused the Conservatives on Mid Suffolk District Council of snubbing community groups by reducing their grants.Penny Otton told the council's executive committee meeting, that the ruling group voted to freeze the proposed rise in funds to the Citizens Advice Bureau, the concessionary travel scheme for the severely disabled, as well as sports development for rural areas and the BBC Radio Suffolk Action Line.

A FORMER council leader has accused the Conservatives on Mid Suffolk District Council of snubbing community groups by reducing their grants.

Penny Otton told the council's executive committee meeting, that the ruling group voted to freeze the proposed rise in funds to the Citizens Advice Bureau, the concessionary travel scheme for the severely disabled, as well as sports development for rural areas and the BBC Radio Suffolk Action Line.

Cllr Mrs Otton, Mid Suffolk Liberal Democrat group leader yesterday said: "This just the sort of thing we expected to happen. The Tory and Independent group just do not seem to be able to see the community benefit of these grants.

"I hope very much that when they have a chance to look at them again they will support these proposals that we put forward back in March.''

But senior Conservatives said they were just looking hard at the issues before deciding on grants, deferring the matter until another meeting of the Executive next month.

Sara Michell, deputy leader of the council, said: "We have not made any cuts, we simply deferred to the next Executive. This was deferred just to give us a choice to look at these schemes, but nothing has been decided.

"We want to examine things very carefully to give people the best value for money. That is part of our policy, we want to be careful as we can, but we certainly do not want to cut back grants to people in need who are expecting them.

"This is just a question of taking a long, hard look and a careful examination, there has been no concrete decision.''

The Conservatives took control from the ruling Liberal Democrat and Labour administration at the council elections in May.