A PLAN to slash annual grant funding for the Frankston Toy Library will make the service inaccessible to people who need it, the library’s president says.
The Frankston Toy Library is a not-for-profit which has provided families and organisations access to toys for the last 44 years. A majority of Frankston councillors have given in-principle support to a proposal to cut the annual funding received by the Toy Library from more than $25,000 a year to $15,000.
Frankston Toy Library President Amber Dick says that the proposed funding cut will mean that she has to reduce opening hours and increase membership fees. “Our grant has been cut by over 40 per cent. We rely on fundraising, grants, and a small income from membership fees to continue our service,” she said. “The grant cut will significantly decrease our opening hours, meaning less people will then be able to access our service, and we would also have to increase membership fees. We like to keep membership fees as low so as many as possible can access us.”
Ms Dick says that cutting funding after the library was already hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic is “such a disappointment”. “We have been in an unfortunate situation because we’ve been unable to open for the last two years. We have had a minimal income from membership. And we are expecting the needs of our services to increase because the pandemic has created significant hardship,” she said. “We are hardly back on our feet after two years of closure and this just creates a huge problem for our organisation operationally.”
Frankston mayor Nathan Conroy defended the planned funding cut, saying that the current grant paid annually to the Toy Library is “not equitable in the context of what other local community groups are receiving.”
“This funding support provided by council is in addition to the provision of a large dedicated area to deliver the service on the basis of a peppercorn rent arrangement,” he said. “The Frankston Toy Library still remains one of the highest funded Toy Libraries that were benchmarked in the southern area.
“Council understands the disappointment of the Frankston Toy Library in relation to the reduced funding allocation and has offered to assist the group to review and adjust their existing operational model to minimise the service impacts.”
The proposed changes to council’s grant program, which will see the overall community grants budget increased by more than $214,000, is expected to be publicly exhibited before coming back to council again in June.
