FOUR years after the town was awarded £10,000 from the Mary Portas Fund, cheques will be written for six successful applicants and the cash will finally be divided up.

Cllr Bob Barnes, chairman of the town's finance and general purposes committee, said he regretted the fact the windfall had not been dished out earlier; but he called the money "a positive endorsement of our ongoing regeneration of the High Street".

And he added: "This is excellent. The cheques are being written this week and most should be sent out in next few days."

But the cash will not be handed over by the group that made the original bid.

The money was actually awarded to the Portas Bid Team in 2013, but it is Ledbury Town Council who will issue the cheques, acting under the General Power of Competence, which according to a Government website, "gives local authorities an explicit freedom to act in the best interests of their voters, unhindered by the absence of specific legislation supporting their actions".

The money has been held in town council coffers for some years and, in June, a request to transfer the funds to the Love Ledbury group was refused by town councillors.

This led to Cllr Liz Harvey, a member of Love Ledbury, and a member of the town's original Portas Bid Team, to claim the funds were being used as "a political football", and she said the situation could be "potentially very serious" for the groups promised funding by Love Ledbury's grant application panel.

Love Ledbury, which runs the public toilets in Bye Street, recently invited community-based applications for Mary Portas funding: even though the £10,000 was actually held, and remains held, by the town council.

However, at a recent full town council meeting, councillors agreed to award funds to six applicants out of seven, under a recommendation that the town council should "issue cheques to the successful applicants".

Councillors decided that the Artistee in Action group, which is a co-operative that sells members' art works, did not quality for money from the Portas pot.

But £5000 will go the Ledbury Youth Drop in Centre; £650 will go to Ledbury Fringe; £500 will go to the Ledbury Library Development Group, towards the costs of "a terminal to host a searchable online catalogue for library members", and £600 will go to the Ledbury Area Cycle Forum, towards the provision of five town centre cycle hoops.

The Ledbury and District University of the Third Age will get £250 towards the costs of "taking over and maintaining flower beds" in the Walled Garden.

And Ledbury Traders' Association is set to get £3000 towards signage, heritage signs and banner to help promote the town.

But this funding for the Traders' Association is still reserved, "pending receipt of a more details proposal from the traders".