The CWA branch has been told it must cough up more than $2500 if it wants to continue using the Ray Bradfield rooms for meetings and events.

The CWA says the new charges are way out of its reach and claims the group handed its original clubroom over to council in 1996 in exchange for a guarantee it could use the Ray Bradfield rooms free-of-charge.

The CWA is calling on council to honour its promise, but Mayor Janet Cropley said there was no written documentation of the alleged agreement.

“Those actions were taken by a previous council and previous administration,” she said.

“There might be a mythology of an agreement, but I don’t think it’s worth anything.

“I don’t know that their original building wasn’t a council building anyway – we can’t find anything in writing.

“The world changes and the way you use things changes and council reserves the right to do that.”

Ms Cropley said the room rental charges were not unreasonable.

“I don’t think they’ve had a raw deal at all,” she said.

“At the end of the day they are talking about using ratepayers’ assets.

“It’s not a reasonable thing that one group out of hundreds of groups that do wonderful things can use the facility without contribution.

“That’s just not acceptable.

“There is nothing special about the CWA.”

The Bendigo Advertiser reported earlier this week the Castlemaine CWA was in danger of folding because of the room rental charges.

Offers of support have been flowing in and include a proposal from the Castlemaine Football and Netball Club to use its social rooms free of charge.

CWA member Anet McDonald said the group would meet on Monday night to discuss ways forward.

“We’re all pretty distressed about the whole situation,” she said.

“There have been a couple of offers, which we’re very grateful for, but we would prefer to stay where we are.

“We’re still determined to fight council on this and we’ll be asking them to wave the fees.”

Central Victoria Group president Sandra Webb said the original Castlemaine CWA rooms were given to the group by the Commonwealth Bank.

“It’s a little old room that looks like an old relocatable schoolroom,” she said.

“Most of the CWA members were elderly ladies and council had upgraded the area and didn’t want it looking crappy and told them they had to paint it and all that.

“The ladies said it was beyond them to do that and that’s

when they moved into the Ray Bradfield rooms.”