Local charities will have to pay £20 to rent a stall at the fairs organised by the Council this summer.

The fairs are held at Hob Moor, Rowntree, West Bank Park, Hull Road and Acomb Green and are a popular event attended by many local residents.

Although no fees for stall rentals were included when the Labour Cabinet agreed its charges for the forthcoming year last December, it now appears that the Councillor with responsibility for Leisure (Cllr Crisp) secretly agreed to levy the new charge. There is no record of this being considered at a Council Cabinet – or any other – meeting and none of the voluntary organisations affected were consulted.

Commercial organisations will be charged a fee of £40. In total around £4000 will be raised by the Council from the new charges.

About 100 different community groups will be affected by the decision together with about 35 commercial organisations.

Although not likely to have as serious an impact on the voluntary sector as the huge reductions in grant aid announced by the Council last month, the secrecy behind the move is yet another example of the widening gulf between the attitudes of some Labour Councillors and the views of the community as a whole.