Former Dorchester mayor Susie Hosford says she was left angry and embarrassed when West Dorset district council was late with a payment of grant money to the town’s football club.

The situation was solved by the town council stepping in and making a short term loan to the club to pay VAT on its new 3G pitch.

Cllr Hosford, who chairs the panel which initially approved the grant to the football club for its new all-weather artificial pitch, says she cannot understand why the payment was late as a schedule had been set up. She says it caused “some difficulties” for the football club, only resolved by the town council helping out.

“West Dorset District Council was not able to keep to the payment schedule and the football club, on a very tight budget, found themselves unable to pay £30,000 they needed to pay because WDDC were slow in making the payment to the club.

“I am embarrassed and extremely angry that this has happened.”

The funding for the club project comes mainly from a fund administered by the district council. The fund is made up of what is known as Section 106 payments which developers pay into to when building projects are completed.

Said Cllr Hosford: “The club did eventually get an apology and a promise that they (WDDC) would put emergency measures in place if this were to ever happen again.”

Cllr Ian Gardner, West Dorset District Council Portfolio Holder for planning, said: on Thursday:

“The district council was one day late in processing a payment. We have agreed to provide a significant amount of section 106 funding towards this project, £300,000 in total. We are working in close partnership with the town council on this and other section 106 funded projects. Both councils are working very well together and we expect there will be further joint projects in the future.

“The town council agreed to help out with this issue by agreeing a short term loan to Dorchester Football Club and we are all very grateful for this. The project delivered by the club is a great achievement by all involved and will serve the town well for many years. West Dorset District Council has been supporting and funding sports projects across the district for many, many years, and this problem has not previously arisen and is unlikely to ever happen again.”

As a fall back Dorchester Town Council has now agreed a loan facility for the football of up to £60,000.

A director of DFC said that the club did not want to comment on the situation which, he said, was overcome quickly with the support of the town council.