4:00pm Thursday 2nd September 2010
HUGE funding cuts have hit a popular project for people with mental health problems and seven out of eight staff must go.
The Growing Together scheme, which has been running in allotments off Fairfax Drive, Westcliff, for ten years, provides horticultural therapy to patients.
However, a £105,000 annual cut means redunduncies are now a formality.
Project volunteer Maureen Frewin has the job of securing alternative funding and identifying budget cuts.
She said: “We are very aware we are working in a climate of cuts, but we want to ensure we survive and make sure we make cuts in the right places.
“We will be making significant reductions in staff and we have served seven of the eight staff with redundancy notices, but we hope all the volunteers will still stay on.”
The project has 12 volunteers and Mrs Frewin said the only reason one staff member had been saved was thanks to a donation from Lloyds TSB.
She said: “We have just secured funding of £20,000 for two years which means we can definitely keep on a member of staff.”
The project received £70,000 a year for three years from a lottery grant, which ends in November. About £30,000 a year was supplied by the primary care trust, plus £15,000 a year from Southend Council.
Now the grant has come to an end, funding from the trust has been stopped and the council has reduced its annual sum from £15,000 to £10,000.
Running costs for the scheme total £130,000 a year, with about £109,000 spent out on staff salaries.
Mrs Frewin, of Steyning Avenue, Southend, added: “The funding we got from the trust was for two years, but we did hope it would have continued on a lower level.”
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