MOTHER-OF-TWO Annette Goddard has won her battle to get a refund from Kennet District Council after it wrongly withdrew her concession for reduced charges at Marlborough Leisure Centre.

The council has said it will be refunding £26 to cover the extra charges she was forced to pay to use the leisure centre with her daughter Laura, eight, and son Tom, nine.

Until April this year, Ms Goddard, of Portfields, Marlborough, was able to take advantage of concessionary admission because she was in receipt of working families tax credit.

Under a benefits reshuffle this was replaced by the new child tax credit and working tax credit, both of which are means tested.

When Ms Goddard went to book a course at the leisure centre she was told her concessions were no longer available as the new working tax credit was not recognised by the council for this purpose.

She sent a detailed letter of objection to the council but, she said, this was ignored.

She followed this up with a telephone call to Marlborough Leisure Centre asking for a response.

Rob Hayday, the council's leisure services operations manager, contacted Ms Goddard and said the working families tax credit scheme had ceased to exist and was no longer included in the list of benefits giving entitlement to discounted rates.

He made no mention of the new benefits Ms Goddard was receiving.

In May, town councillor Richard Allen took up her case. He said he had an immediate response from the council to say it was looking again at its decision because it admitted it had been misinformed about the eligibility of the new tax credit for inclusion in the concessions scheme.

Last week, the council told him it conceded that recipients of working families' tax credit were entitled to concessions at the Marlborough, Devizes and Tidworth leisure centres.

But it said it was not going to refund any of the additional money Ms Goddard had paid since April in admission charges.

However, on Tuesday, Coun Allen said Kennet had told him it would be refunding £26.

A council spokeswoman said the council regretted there had a been a delay while new benefits were assessed.

She said the new working families' tax credit and child tax credit scheme had to be evaluated to assess whether recipients should receive concessions.

In June, councillors agreed that recipients of working families' tax credit, but not child tax credit under which couples on joint incomes of up to £50,000 a year can claim benefits, could get leisure concessions.

The spokeswoman said the delay in approving concessions under the new working families' tax credit had been unavoidable. She said the council had responded to Ms Goddard's letters and calls, and she had been told there would be a delay while new benefits were being assessed.