I WAS interested in the article about the award of more than £70,000 to the Wensleydale Railway from the Richmondshire District Council Economic Growth Fund (D&S Times, July 14).

The Economic Growth Fund, with a pot of £300,000, was launched last November with the first deadline for bids in February 2017. The aim of the fund was to support initiatives which promoted growth in the district’s economy through commercial activity.

I believe that the scheme was very oversubscribed with requests for funding totalling almost £1m yet Richmondshire council has made only two awards: one to the railway and the other to the Yorkshire Dales National Park authority of £50,000.

The fund is now closed.

One wonders what happened to the nearly £180,000 which was unallocated when the fund was so very oversubscribed. There must surely have been some deserving bids outwith with the National Park?

Mirren Hunter, Richmond