Each Wellingborough councillor has been given £1,000 to spend in their communities during the financial year 2009-10 and The Evening Telegraph reported in January that only £9,000 of the £36,000 had been allocated to projects.

But now just £9,474 remains to be spent, with a total of £26,526 now assigned to projects.

Councillors are advised to spend the money in the year it is allocated for, although usually it can roll over to the next financial year if necessary.

Castle ward councillors Paul Crofts, Shashi Dholakia and Maureen Shram had already allocated £2,390 to cover an overspend on the 2008 Mela festival, and have now spent the remaining £610 on clearing flytipping from alleyways in Alexander Road and Albert Road.

Brickhill councilllors Tim Allebone, Lora Lawman and Geoff Simmons have spent their combined £3,000 on Smartwater property marking kits, and Queensway councillors Ruth Bell, David Dean and Mark Hollyman have pooled their money to do the same.

South councillor Tom Partridge-Underwood spent his cash on a
noticeboard for Easton Maudit and on a new water boiler for St Mary's Church Hall in Bozeat.

He also gave £250 to the Age Concern lunch club which meets in Bozeat and another £250 to Bozeat's All Starz youth group.

Kevin Jones, of Colwell Road, Wellingborough, said: "We benefited from the Mela, that was a good do.

"If the Smartwater kits could be bought for the Castle ward that would be great, because there are a few crime problems in this area."