Almost £30,000 could be slashed from funding given to the voluntary sector a year, as the Isle of Wight Council looks to tighten its belt.
Town, parish and community councils across the Island are being asked to step in to plug the funding gap instead.
Through the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) support contract, £78,000 a year is given to help support an organisation achieve its charitable aims and assist in the local health and care sector. The contract has been held by Community Action Isle of Wight since 2018.
In that time, Community Action IW has helped with the COVID pandemic and the vaccination effort, rehoming Ukrainian refugees and runs Island Community Ventures Ltd and the Riverside Centre, in Newport.
Through its Island Community Ventures, it operates shops, post offices and amenities including the Godshill Village Shop and Post Office, Scarrots Lane Bakery and post office outreach services in Brading, Wootton and Totland.
The VCSE contract has been in place since 2012 and provided more than £700,000 to support community organisations.
In a letter to the 33 smaller councils on the Island, the Isle of Wight Council acknowledges the work the VCSE provides and the support needed for it to be sustainable and effective. However, with the contract ending in September 2023, the council says the funding cannot remain as large as it is.
The letter states it has been agreed by the leadership team an annual saving of £28,000 must be made. It would take annual funding down to £50,000, unless the other councils step up to ensure the current level of support remains.
An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson said no decision had been made in relation to the value of any contracts which have expired as they are currently in the budget-setting phase for the next financial year. They said a full review of the existing VCSE contract specification, cost and performance requirements is being undertaken to ensure the service remains fit for purpose, meets the needs of local voluntary sector organisations and provides value for money.
The spokesperson said they continue to explore how services can be funded moving forward and on occasion, this includes discussions with partners around joint funding.
The council’s budget will not be agreed until February next year but savings are trying to be found as funding pressures increase.
As the war is coming to an end and even if not , not all of Ukraine is under bombardment, then perhaps a huge saving could be achieved by purchasing one-way tickets?
Or as I suspect, even if life returns to better than before there, we will bear the ever increasing cost as those here inform others of the Bisto train, and gullible populace here.
How can IWC do this -“Through the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) support contract, £78,000 a year is given to help support an organisation achieve its charitable aims and assist in the local health and care sector “, local health and care,so one child ending up in care, one person commits suicide, one elderly person goes into nursing care and each cost more to tax payers than saved ,this organisation helps hundreds if not thousands of vunerable people on the IOW. What does a CEO do that helps so many?. Council needs to make cut’s in it’s own establishment not take away from those that are already greatly disadvantaged through health or age . This council gets more like the Trump brigade me me me and sod everyone else.
Have the IWC approached the hants and IoW ICS and asked if they couod help with funding?
Also, what about the hants & iow community Foundation? Solutions are there if people try hard enough.
And the money wasted on that so called top job at county hall £138,000would have gone a long way and we would see some thing from it but no this Council does not give a f–k about people on the island
Simple don’t get your new heating system and led lighting !!!!!!!
Cut you’re coat according to your cloth, we have to ! so defer unnecessary spending …..ie the above……
AND KEEP OUR services……
All the excuses now in lieu of clobbering us with a Council tax rise ….nothing new there ,we the cash cow’s can read you all like a book …..
“Councils in Devon, Cornwall, Norfolk, the Lake District and Yorkshire are among those planning to increase council tax for those who are not permanent residents.”
Why not take a look how other councils are thinking of raising money….
Its all about greed
The more they take the more they earn
We pay for a floating bridge that does not work but cut off the funding for something that does ummm
So slash this but pay someone to sit in a heated office £130+k of tax payer money to do not very much of anything
I can see a uprising in the very very near future
This council have zero moral
They’ll cut everything. To increase money for there pet project, benefits scroungers.
The only way to change things is for people to refuse to pay council tax.
But, as everyone is all mouth, and gutless, they will ‘all’ leave it to others to ‘get told off’ or gain fines or gain a criminal conviction, so ‘that’ will never happen and the council know it.
The even weaker will ‘use’ ”If I don’t pay, the vulnerable may suffer” to avoid ‘breaking the law’
Yet the Council HAVE to provide support whatever for certain services as that is ring fenced.
If only we could do as the Council- let’s all get Non disclosure order on our income/savings etc and then we won’t have to pay as show as no income etc.
What not getting is that if they did get payout for floating bridge why not use money they weren’t expecting to support projects like this ?.
Ah no they can’t do that they need it to pay for future breakdowns and the jenny !!!!!!!
Lol , couldn’t organise a p – – s up in a brewery, and they are all the same …..me me me !!!!!!
County council continue to defund services, whilst every year increasing our council tax. Where does it all go?
Asking the town councils to pay up, is just dumping additional costs to them. Which then results in an ever-larger bill to us from local council. On such a small island, do we need so many councils, all building empires.
Cllr Quigley said more than half of Island households will be under food or energy stress this winter. Yet they continually hit us with unfair, unaffordable rises. Clearly the intention is to raise this to100%.
About time they considered the whole population, not the few. I feel sorry for the pensioners, who struggle to survive. Without out the blizzard, of means tested benefits.