Public Teat Wrenched Away From Suckling Progressives…

Resultant squealing is deafening:

An organisation at the centre of the town’s community cohesion efforts is facing closure.

Eight people could be made redundant at Rochdale Centre of Diversity, based at Deen House, after the council refused to carry on funding it.

It seems they had problems raising money and wanted the council to fork over a wodge of council taxpayers money to tide them over.

Surprisingly, the council said ‘No’:

Chief executive Mohammad Naeem said they tried to secure funding in the region of £450,000 - £650,000 a year but claim the council refused to provide £60,000 needed to guarantee their future to March next year.

He said: "It’s disturbing that the council is not only contributing to local unemployment but depriving the borough’s communities of the organisation most aware of and involved in the issues around community cohesion and the one best placed to advise and support both council and communities in their resolution.

I guess they decided, in these straitened economic circumstances, that your ‘advice and support’ was something they could do with out.

Good for them.

Councillor Mohammad Sharif, the cabinet member for regeneration, rejected claims that the council hadn’t done enough to support RCD, adding that the authority was no longer prepared to give it any more public money.

It seems they weren’t happy with the quality of that ‘advice and support’:

He said: "Our priority is to ensure that the services provided to the local community are of a high standard and are consistently delivered.

"We have been aware of the financial difficulties faced by RCD for some time.
"Some of those difficulties are the result of problems with funding streams entirely unconnected to the council. We have already supported RCD financially by making advance payments of three quarters of their total grant funding for the year.

"It has become clear to us that despite the help, RCD would be unable to provide the agreed services in the future.

"We’re just not prepared to give them more public money when we know that they will be unable to deliver services to an acceptable standard.

If they do declare insolvency, will the council be able to get that advance payment back, I wonder?