Newport City Council is considering whether to stop its contribution to funding outdoor education centres including Hilston Park, the Palladian mansion north of Monmouth that has been used by countless schools over the years.

Funding problems raised its head in 2010 when the Beacon reported that the centre was possibly due to have its allocation of funds from Newport cut, although a reprieve was on the cards.

This time, with the icy wind of austerity cutting through the budgets of councils, Newport council cabinet is recommending to its full council that budget savings should be made affecting the Gwent Music Service and Outdoor Education, a decision they are aware would affect those in less privileged households.

Ian Kennett, head of services at Hilston Park, said: "Children on free school meals who pay about half the full cost will no longer get any help.

"Many Newport pupils will be effectively 'priced out' as charges will inevitably rise for them. Some Newport schools will not be able to get a viable group together and may therefore not be able to make a visit.

"Most importantly the children will miss out, including some of the most deprived."

Although a hardship fund of £15,000 is recommended for Gwent Music Support Service, government funding for Newport has reduced from £9.4million in 2010/11 to £5.7million in 2013/14 which means that some money will simply evaporate.

Ian continued: "Hilston Park Centre Gilwern and Talybont still receives fantastic support from Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen councils as schools from out of the county still enjoy the facilities of one of South Wales's top outdoor education services.

"The service is still very popular with the centres fully booked until September.

"We plan to continue to expand innovative opportunities and new partnerships such as the one recently developed with leisure services.

"An orienteering festival has been planned for 15th March at Raglan Primary School and another planned at Cross Ash in the summer term and recently the centre has been running two days of 'introduction to adventure' out of Monmouth Leisure Centre where 24 children took part in orienteering, kayaking and mountain biking.

"This was as a result of funding from Sport Wales via MCC's Local Authority Partner Agreement (LAPA) where youngsters booked onto the days via the leisure centre and both Monmouth days were fully booked.

"The LAPA has enabled us to buy various equipment such as the sit on top kayaks we used in the leisure centre and has funded profession mapping of every primary school, secondary school, Chippenham Fields and a number of other parks and open spaces resulting in 50 maps all together.

"This is a fantastic new resource to enable children to learn new skills and get fitter at the same time.

"Every school has also had the offer of sending a member of staff on free British Orienteering certified training and every school in the Monmouth area now has at least one qualified orienteering coach.

"I believe Monmouthshire is the first county across Wales to have achieved such a significant investment at the grass roots level of an increasingly popular sport and we plan to build on this success."