The chairman of a historic barge trust has denied claims it is in trouble.

Maldon District Council leader Adrian Fluker told a meeting the Dawn Sailing Barge Trust was in financial “difficulty” and that the council will be distancing itself from the organisation.

However, trust chairman Paul Winter says there any no dangers the group that maintains the 19th century barge will fold.

He said: “The trust is not in demise. It is not in any particular financial difficulty – no more than any other trusts for traditional boats.

“We brought it back to Maldon and the council said they would be lots of support.

“We had three years of discussion but not much happened, so we made the decision to move it out of Maldon.”

The Dawn, now moored in Brightlingsea, is one of the oldest working barges, having been commissioned in 1895.

She still sails the River Blackwater and is the only barge in the world still helmed by a tiller.

She was berthed alongside the other barges at the quay in Maldon, and is used on Maldon’s coat of arms.

Althorne councillor Bob Boyce said the council invested a total of £50,000 into the trust, which Mr Winter said was during the restoration stage of the barge.

The council said £12,000 of that money was in cash, and the rest was in officers’ time and support.

Mr Boyce was nominated by the council to sit on committees with the trust about progress on the barge’s maintenance during its three years at Hythe Quay.

Mr Boyce said: “Our involvement with the trust goes back many years to when it was transferred back to Maldon for its rebuild.

“But in all the years I have been a nominee, I have never been invited to a meeting and I have never attended a meeting of the trust.

“I have not even had a sail on the Dawn.”

The council said it made an agreement when it gave funding to the Dawn Sailing Barge Trust to have use of the boat ten times a year.

However, Mr Boyce said that every time he tried to have use of it, the barge was unavailable.

In 2001, the trust received a grant of £675,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Heybridge West councillor Miriam Lewis said questions must be asked if the trust was in trouble.

She said: “A lot of this authority’s money – our residents’ money – has been provided and I think we need to know precisely where it went, when things started going wrong and why weren’t we keeping an eye on it and challenging.

“We need to make sure we have robust processes so that we have the bang for the buck that we were promised.”