ORGANISERS of Kidderm-inster's golden jubilee celebrations have been left with £2,000 worth of debts after its grant application for Lottery funding was bungled, it has been claimed.

Peter Picken, treasurer-secretary of the Kidderminster Golden Jubilee Partnership, described the actions of the regional office of Awards for All, which rejected its £5,000 bid, as a "fiasco".

And he said a hefty slice of the £5,000 raised for charity over the Bank Holiday would now have to be used to pay off a shortfall.

Mr Picken said advance publicity had made it clear the Government wanted the community to organise jubilee events and applications for grant aid were encouraged.

He had telephoned the Awards for All office on March 20, nine days before the closing date for applications, and was told it was not too late to apply.

A bid was submitted on March 26 and an acknowledgement of receipt on March 27 was sent on April 22, saying the office would get in contact if more information was needed.

In a letter to Awards for All this week Mr Picken wrote: "We had committed ourselves to organising events knowing that our application had been accepted and expecting some financial support."

But when he phoned the office on May 27 he said he was amazed to be told no grant would be awarded as the bid did not include a letter from the bank.

However, this requirement was only introduced in new editions of the application pack and was not mentioned in the documents sent to him, he said.

Mr Picken added it was too late to return the application as the committee which allocated grant aid had already met.

In the letter to Awards for All Mr Picken added: "We believe we have been unfairly treated as our application was not dealt with in an appropriate manner."

A spokeswoman for Awards for All said the Kidderminster group had not allowed enough time for their bid to be processed and insisted a letter from the bank had always been a requirement.