Council gives £30,000 to struggling service group

The council's cabinet has agreed to give £15,000 a year to Durham City CVS and Volunteer Bureau, which is based at Red Hills and recruits, places and supports volunteers and promotes volunteering.

It is facing a cut in income after two funding sources dried up.

The council is giving its support for only two years as it may be replaced by the proposed county-wide unitary council in 2009.

A report to the cabinet said that the CVS and Volunteer Bureau provided services worth about £1m to the district.

It said the organisation faced costs of about £110,000 but income was only £50,000, mostly provided by Durham County Council, Change Up and the Durham District Partnership.

Funding from the Single Regeneration Budget and Lloyds TSB has come to an end and it is seeking new sources.

Applications had been made to other bodies, but until decisions are made on those, the service is having to dip into its reserves of £32,000 and was "struggling to see out the current year''.

Councillors were told that the organisation was negotiating with the county's primary care trust for funding, but there is a current shortfall of about £60,000.

The report said that without funding, the service could cease, jeopardising the council's aim of developing flourishing communities.

The council's cabinet member for finance, Dennis Southwell, said that because the council might be abolished in 2009, if plans for the unitary authority were implemented, it could not commit itself to funding for more than two years.

"We don't know what the future holds for us,'' he said. "But at least this funding will give the organisation a base to work from so that it can go and seek funding from other organisations.''

The leader of the council, Fraser Reynolds, supported the move to provide funding and praised the work that the organisation does.

"We all agree that it does a marvellous job in and around the city,'' he told councillors.