Charity project hit by cuts in funding

11:32am Friday 10th November 2006

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A CHARITY that helps people with mental health issues become more independent is to have its county council funding slashed.

The Bridge Project, based in Stallard Street, Trowbridge, runs Saturday clubs giving people and their carers some respite as well as provide them with the skills and confidence they need to go back out into the world.

Now cash-stricken Wiltshire County Council has said it will no longer provide the £56,000 funding for the clubs, which will have to close in March, with the loss of five part-time staff.

Project manager Andrew Day said: "We are struggling to see what the county council's priorities are. We are struggling to get a straight answer out of them.

"They say we don't meet their criteria but we are doing silver surfing (helping older people use the internet), we are tackling obesity through healthy eating and cookery, we are helping people back to work and education and I thought these were government and council priorities.

"It is not just about losing our service. Some of these people are losing other services too and it is a huge blow to them."

Jeanette Longhurst, assistant director of adult and community services at the county council, said the authority is simply not renewing a contract it has with the Bridge Project.

"We are not cutting a grant. We have had a contract with the Bridge Project, which comes to an end in March," she said. "We will not be renewing the contract. The Bridge Project is obviously welcome to tender for work we will be commissioning to meet our objective to promote independence for people in Wiltshire."

The first Saturday club opened at the Clarendon College, Trowbridge, nearly five years ago and further clubs followed in Chippenham, Marlborough and Warminster.

Ruth Wishart, 45, of Southfield, Bradford on Avon, who suffers from a long-term mental illness, said the club was part of the process of regaining confidence and re-igniting an early interest in art and crafts.

She said: "I had always liked art and craft but without the club I probably wouldn't have thought about going back to it. The teacher gave me a lot of confidence."

Miss Wishart is now working part-time and has carried on her interest in art through joining several groups.

Still going to the Trowbridge club on Saturdays is 55-year-old Ian Read, who lives in Clarendon Avenue with his parents, Gordon and Joan, both 87.

Mr Read has Asperger Syndrome and the club gives his parents a welcome break.

Mrs Read said: "He mostly goes on the computer, which he really enjoys. It is a break for us and it is pretty awful what is happening."

The council is making cuts across a range of services provided to adults with disabilities but says services will be replaced with more emphasis on independence and care in the community.