BIG differences in borough council grants to civil parishes in the north of the borough have been revealed.

Over the last two years, Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has granted an average of £2.92 per person in Bramley, compared with a whopping £88.03 for each person in Stratfield Saye parish.

The differences in funding from the borough have often caused grumbling among parish councils in the north of the Gazette area.

However, in the case of Stratfield Saye, the high figure is down to a £20,000 grant last year for leisure facilities and community buildings for a parish with a relatively low number of residents.

In figures supplied by the borough council, Silchester Parish Council nonetheless emerged with more than three times the amount that Tadley Town Council received per person in the years 2009/10 and 2010/11.

The grants for parish councils include money to tackle litter, for administration, parish funding, community planning and leisure facilities. They are separate from the council tax precept.

Bramley Parish Council, which recently upped its own precept by 215 per cent, received the smallest amount of money of those inquired about.

Tadley Town Council was unsurprisingly granted the highest total, receiving £45,143 over the two years.

But with a population of 11,384, Tadley only received £3.96 per person over the two-year period.

Baughurst Parish Council also received a relatively low amount of money with the equivalent of £3.86 per person.

Silchester and Burghclere each received more than £10 per person in the same period.

Bramley Parish Council chairman John Ferguson said that their allowances from the borough council were constantly under review.

A statement from the borough council said it gives each parish council a general administration grant of £1,100 a year to help with costs.

It will also hand out specific grants for activities carried out by the parish councils themselves, while there are also other grant schemes that parish councils are eligible to bid for such as the leisure facilities and community buildings scheme.

As a result, it says funding will change year-on-year depending on what activities the parish councils are undertaking during that period.