How the county council is treating some local charities......

YESTERDAY - on this site - we questioned how the county council is funding local charities.Some have been dumped completely from its budget.Is that fair - some charities are very upset.Here is one example..........
By The Newsroom
Published 1st Feb 2007, 08:18 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 20:08 BST

A RYE charity will not get a penny in funding from East Sussex County Council - despite helping to bale it out.

The Activities, Respite and Rehabilitation Care Centre provides vital support for adults suffering from physical and sensory impairments.

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It recently widened its remit to care for former users of Rye's Friary Day Centre, which the county council closed last year in a hated cost-cutting move.

Now ARRCC has been left high and dry by the county council after having a 80,000 funding request turned down.

ARRCC co-ordinator Grace O'Neill said: "This is a real blow which will affect us. We have responded to requests to help from the county council but have not been given the back-up. We needed that money for our core administration costs as we desperately need a full-time member of staff. Now it looks as if we will have to continue to rely on volunteers.

"Last year they turned us down because they said we were not financially secure, but since then we have really grown and won more support from the local community."

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ARRCC operates from Rye Memorial Care Centre but recently started running additional sessions at Magdala House.

Grace said: "The support we have received from the local community has been fantastic. Winchelsea Church made us its chosen charity for a month and made a donation. The funding would have really helped us at a time when we are growing and meeting the needs of an increasing number of people in the Rye area."

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said: "Despite reductions in other budgets, the overall level of funding for voluntary organisations is the same so we have not cut this budget.

"Some groups will have less funding but councillors are being open and honest about this - our budget for the next two years is 724,000 but we have had bids amounting to over 2.3m - more than three times the funding available." Among the winners in awards were Rother Voluntary Action, who will receive 51,000, and Age Concern East Sussex who will get 15,500.

Related topics:East Sussex County CouncilRye