Concern that primary schools are having to approach charities for what appears to be basic equipment was expressed by Otago Masonic Charitable Trust chairman Hugh Montgomery yesterday.
At the trust's annual presentation of grants, scholarships and fellowships in Dunedin he told more than 100 people of an instance where a school sought funding for drinking fountains, something which "must be essential in anyone's thinking".
Speaking later, he said he did not want to name the school and was aware the trust might have only heard one side of the story.
The trust was not in a position to provide such support and he was concerned that schools "should feel obliged" to apply for items of basic equipment.
Mr Montgomery was also critical of the Dunedin City Council's insistence that a charitable group which wanted to provide a toilet to be used by disabled children at the bottom of a gully at the edge of the city would be required to spend more than $30,000.
The group, which he did not wish to name, was being asked to comply with "every local and national rule" when it should have been allowed to proceed if the sewerage and water connections were "OK".
