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Vital services in the community face cuts

COLCHESTER is set to lose out on days of actions, PCSOs and vital community services after the Government demanded its money back.

The Tory/Lib Dem coalition has told Essex County Council to pay back half of a £26million grant – of which £717,000 goes to projects in Colchester.

The Essex Partnership, which administers the money, has told Colchester to come up with scenarios if 50 per cent or 75 per cent of their slice has to be returned.

Colchester Council could be forced to foot the bill because it has already spent much of the money allocated to it.

Tina Dopson, councillor responsible for communities, said: “We have already allocated and in some cases spent that money.

“We’re trying to take the hit first at Colchester Council to minimise the effect on the voluntary groups.

“That means there are going to be some projects that will now not go ahead and local residents will suffer.

“We can’t deliver it from existing budgets because they have already been cut by central government too.

“We may have to make up the difference from our own resources.”

The Helpmates scheme, which sees the Colchester Volunteer Centre send out people to do DIY and gardening jobs for frail and elderly residents, was given £32,000 and has already been suspended.

Others, including days of action and a family intervention support officer employed by Colchester Council, could follow.

Much of the money, including £56,000 aimed at boosting recycling in Colchester, has already been spent. Mrs Dopson said cutting funding would badly damage the Government’s “Big Society” dream because charities would no longer be able to afford to help people in need.

She said: “This is not a good way to manage what the Government call the Big Society.

“If this carries on, there won’t be any voluntary organisations because this is core funding.”

Mrs Dopson added she was still waiting to hear back exactly how much must be repaid.


Comments (12)

30/08/10

Voter99 says...

I wouldn't mind these cuts if we saw a cut in taxes but the Tories want cuts and high taxes.
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The Tories and their LibDem friends are just as stupid as New Labour and Thatcher's Tories.

30/08/10

Anna Key says...

This is the Tories' class war against the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. Billionaire bankers caused the mess, yet they are still living in a land which is for them a land of low taxation. But it is most certainly not a land of low taxation for a low paid public sector worker like me.

30/08/10

Boris says...

"Vital" means life-or-death. Nobody is going to die as a result of these cuts. The services being cut are important, but not "vital". Gazette, please write better headlines.
Having said that, it is deplorable that the government is cutting funds that have already been spent, but that is what we have learned to expect.
Anyone calling for tax cuts is dreaming, unless of course it is loopholes in the tax law which will benefit the rich, but not the rest of us.

30/08/10

Anna Key says...

Boris - You seem to be bickering about the Gazette's use of English. The 'helpmates' scheme appears to be a very important one, and its loss is one we should deplore.

30/08/10

Anna Key says...

Boris - It has also been very well established by academic research that suicide rates increase during times of economic hardship. How the loss of this service for elderly people, or its impact on people who are giving their time to make the lives of others a little bit better, is surely impossible to quantify or qualify?

30/08/10

crosby says...

Come on Anna - we all know it wasn't just the bankers who caused the problem although they were bad enough. Worse was the Labour Government's borrowing on a massive scale to try and buy popularity which has plunged the country into the biggest level of debt ever. And all that led by multi-millionaire war monger Tony aided and abetted by the 'man who would be King' Brown who eventually inherited the Kingdom and blew it in grand style. But you're right on one thing - the Coalition Government shouldn't ask for money back that's already been given to very good causes, but they are right to cut the school building programme which had no money to back it up, ID cards, quangos stuffed with and financed by Monopoly money (like NHS Direct and the Audit Commission) and the regional moneyburners like EEDA and the meaningless regional assembly. Taking money from this County group which helps so many people in need is simply mean and a step too far.

31/08/10

Boris says...

Anna, OK, I quibbled over a Gazette headline, but this paper's inept headlines are quite annoying. Another story yesterday was headlined "More testing leads to high sex disease rate", implying that people being tested caused higher rates of disease, which is obviously absurd. I know the paper is written under pressure but I don't see why we should put up with sloppy writing. And I'm glad you agree with me that services such as Helpmates are important.
Crosby, I agree with you that the Labour government was spending money that it didn't have, and was borrowing unsustainably. But this was also because it was failing to collect sufficient taxes. A top rate of at least 60% should have been brought in several years ago. For the first nine years of the Thatcher government the top rate was 60% and there were few complaints about it from high earners - they were happy that it wasn't 83% as it had been under Attlee.
I also agree with you that the BSF school building programme had to be cancelled, and I am very pleased that as a result two good schools in south Colchester, threatened under Labour, are now likely to survive.

31/08/10

cavillas says...

Why should these funds be handed back? They were given by the Government and should stay in place. Talk about Indian Givers. Just like the Tories, always attacking the very people it said it wanst to help and protect whilst giving everything to those who have it all.

31/08/10

Andy Hamilton says...

Outrageous that the government can demand money back. How can any public body manage its budget when subject to this financial vandalism.
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However Colchester Council could easily cope with the indicated loss of £350,000 by mothballing the VAF. That would save £6.4million this year and public subsidies of £1million/year.

31/08/10

Anna Key says...

OK Boris, I noticed the sex disease piece, and you're right, that really wasn't the best headline. But these journalists do have to put the stories together under high pressure and on low wages - a trainee journalist with Newsquest gets paid less per hour than I do. I've been unfortunate enough to live in Chelmsford in the past, and the great misfortune to have had the Essex Chronicle as the local provider of news. And you really couldn't get a more reactionary, right-wing, tawdry little rag than that. If you talked about professional standards to them, they'd probably have to look the words up in a dictionary. So after dealing with them, the Gazette comes across as a paragon of journalistic virtue! I would suggest in the main its journalists do a decent job.
Crosbey - I really wouldn't want to defend New Labour's mismanagement of the economy. But this is a world wide recession, and the bankers really are to blame for that.

31/08/10

ALMONDS says...

How about "THE ANNA KEY COLUMN" as a title for this article.

The Gazette trainee journalists may be under paid but the senior journalists and the management are not. The management should be responsible for checking articles before they go to print.

I worked in the insurance industry and had to produce accurate documents under high pressure, it is possible.
If the journalists cannot do their jobs then why are they still employed

31/08/10

Say It As It Is OK? says...

If these cuts means losing a few PCSO's that wouldn't be a bad thing. What do they do anyway? They have no powers of arrest, seem totally inept in how they react to any situation that confronts them and does anyone feel safer with them wandering around town in pairs during the day time only? Me thinks not!