GRANTS to support community projects in Devon will be kept at the same level after a campaign to prevent them being cut.

County councillors each get £8,000 a year to spend on supporting local causes, but the cash was under threat because of a proposal to slash them to £5,000.

Cllr Jacqi Hodgson (Green, Totnes and Dartington) fought for the pots of cash, officially called locality budgets, to be held at the current level in the next financial year that begins in April.

She suggested the £3,000 for each of the 60 councillors could come from another pot of money set aside for grants for other community organisations.

This would mean the £180,000 would not be lost through plugging the budget shortfall.

She said: ‘That would leave that community grant budget at just under £1 million, which is still a lot of money and could be used to support some good work.’

She was speaking at Devon County Council’s full council meeting as the draft budget was agreed.

She said: ‘I feel using that money to help maintain the locality budgets at £8,000 per councillor is sensible as the cash can be used at the local level and means councillors can respond to things that are important in their area.;

While there was broad support for Cllr Hodgson’s amendment, some raised concerns the idea could impact organisations like Citizens Advise Bureau (CAB).

But Devon’s finance director, Angie Sinclair, assured councillors that there would be no impact on CAB.