Charity hits back in council funding cuts row

Mencap rubbishes claims it has money "stashed away"

WEST Berkshire Mencap has dismissed claims it has enough money in the bank to cope with having its council funding cut.

The charity is set to lose out on £137,000 a year from March 2016 as part of the district council’s plan to save £10.6m.

Mencap has warned that it will have to close almost all its children’s services and after-school clubs, and described the council cuts as a “short-sighted, reckless and destructive decision” that could have “devastating and far-reaching consequences” for hundreds of families.

However, council leader Gordon Lundie (Con, Lambourn Valley) blasted the organisation in last week’s Newbury Weekly News, saying that he struggled to see how a charity “with reserves of £1.2m and £800,000 in the bank” would need to cut services.

He launched a scathing attack on the charity – saying he found it “utterly despicable” that it was telling parents it would have to close services while “stashing money away”.

Mr Lundie also accused Mencap of “cynically using disabled children for its own political needs”.

Last week Mencap held a meeting to discuss the proposed cuts with parents of children who use the charity’s services – during which it explained financial position in light of Mr Lundie’s claims.

The charity dismissed Mr Lundie’s comments as misleading and inaccurate, saying that while the charity had more than £800,000 in its reserves, it was unable to use these funds to mitigate the impact of the proposed cuts. It added that the £1.2m referred to was the total value of its assests, including its centre in Enborne.

Following the meeting, Men-cap released a statement of its accounts, dated June 30, 2014, showing the charity had £835,701 in reserves, or cash in the bank.

However, £695,000 of that money was restricted, meaning that it had just £141,921 ‘free reserves’ to spend. The charity has since released a statement saying: “If free reserves are spent next year, what happens the year after that?

“Once these reserves are spent, the charity will potentially be in an even worse position; the services de-funded by the council will have to close in any event, and other services will then be put at risk.

“This is at odds with the trustees’ overriding legal obligation and responsibility to ensure the long-term sustainability of the charity.”

At the meeting, Michelle Ross, the parent of a child using Mencap’s services, said: “Without Mencap our family would have broken down years ago. It is a lifeline for us.”

Mencap is one of eight charities that the council says are likely to lose part or all of their funding.

The council has warned that no one is safe as it looks to save £10.6m in the next financial year and says it is “looking at all options”, including raising council tax and cutting frontline services such as children’s services and libraries.