I went along to something called the Tom Woolgar Trust tonight, which I was persuaded to join a few weeks ago. No one seems to remember who Mr Woolgar was, but when he died in 1928 he left a Trust fund to provide heating costs relief for the 'poor and needy' older population of Newport Borough. A sort of do it yourself Winter Fuel Payment. Ever since then four Newport Borough, then Medina Borough, and now IWC councillors meet every first quarter of the year to dispense grants to applicants from the fund. So I was following a long line of illustrious Newport Labour councillors - John McKeown, Jack Powell, Jack Kinchington, Bert Chalmers - whose names I noted in the Minute Book for the 1960s and 1970s.
There does not seem to be as many applicants these days, probably because of the Labour Government's excellent Winter Fuel payments, but of the 19 applicants 16 were from Pan. The Trust members were pleased to award £75 to each of them and we all left feeling we had done our historical duty. And my name will now be in that Minute Book !
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