Wallingford town councillors are angry that their bid for cash to fund the town information centre at the town hall has been rejected by South Oxfordshire Dis-trict Council.

Mayor Alec Hayton has protested to district council leader Ann Ducker and demanded a rethink.

Wallingford's protest is part of a joint effort by Didcot, Thame and Henley town councils, who have been told funding for their One Stop Shops is likely to end and who are presenting a united front of opposition.

Wallingford's case is un-ique because it has never had a One Stop Shop and never had funding from the district council.

Wallingford's tourist information centre was paid for by Tourism South East with £30,000 a year, and when funding stopped, the town council took over the costs to form a town information centre.

But rising costs forced the town council to ask for funding in line with the other authorities — who each received about £27,000 a year.

Town clerk Andrew Rogers told the council: "We asked for this because over the years Wallingford has contributed a great deal to the district council and has lost a lot of money because of district council actions.

"We felt a contribution here would help balance things out."

The town council pays the district council up to £7,000 a year to keep the Riverside paddling and swimming pools open, even though they are not within the town's boundaries — and paid the district council more than £25,000 to help repair the pools five years ago.

The town council also lost about £17,000 a year in car parking fees from the former St Albans car park, which the district council handed over to the new Waitrose store for its car parking.

The council pays more than £12,000 a year for the town information centre.

It also pays the district council more than £16,000 a year as a contribution to closed circuit television in the town.

Mr Rogers said: “Costs are rising all the time, income is down and the town council does not have an infinite supply of money, so we asked for a contribution to our costs.”

The district council did a survey of the One Stop Sh-ops and Wallingford's town information centre.

It concluded Wallingford was too near the district council's Crowmarsh HQ for it to have to deal with a lot of district council matters. It also said that if it grant-aided Wallingford, ot-her large villages would want similar help.

Mr Hayton said he was angry Wallingford had been downgraded in the district council's eyes to a ‘large village’.

Deputy mayor Dee Cripps said the decision was “the thin end of the wedge” and would lead to more funding cuts.

She said: “The town information centre is a vital facility for our people and for visitors — we need it and we need help to keep it running.”

The corporate improvement scrutiny committee, which made the recommendations to the council’s cabinet, is chaired by Pat Dawe, one of Wallingford's district council representatives.

She said: "Wallingford's case was well put at the committee, but we felt funding the information centre could not be justified. Wallingford is very dear to my heart — I used to live there and I was the town clerk — but the figures just did not add up."

The cabinet will make a decision early next month.