Spiralling costs have forced Falmouth’s premier brass band to go cap in hand to the town council to ask for a grant.

At a meeting of Falmouth Town Council’s finance and general purposes committee last week, Pendennis Brass chairman Glyn Thomas asked councillors to help them with their finances.

The band applied for a grant of £200 towards the £400 cost of hiring a mini-bus to travel to the national championships in Torquay recently.

He told the committee that “once again” the band was applying for a grant to help with the spiralling costs of running the organisation as it was brassic.

“Since last year, as you know, prices and the cost of living having rocketed and the effect of these rises has hit the band hard in relation to the cost of travel,” he said.

Instead of hiring a coach as usual they had to go up to competition in various cars and a hire mini-bus.

He said the band also faced the problems of the increasingly cashless society. He said when they play at places like the Princess Pavilion often people don’t have money for the collection, despite them having their own card machine. 

Cllr Steve Eva said they were the council band and played at many civic occasions and they were needed and proposed the full £200 which was passed by the committee.