Curley asks Pickles to intervene to stop Notts Council funding cuts

Finance | Tania Mason | 21 Dec 2011

Navca chief executive Kevin Curley has asked local government secretary Eric Pickles to intervene to stop Nottinghamshire County Council making massive cuts to its voluntary sector budget.

The budget for supporting the sector in 2010/11 was £3.2m. The following year, it was cut to £1.4m, a reduction of 56 per cent.

In a letter to Pickles last Friday, Curley pointed out that this reduction is very much higher than overall cuts made by Nottinghamshire County Council to its own services – though he admits he could not pinpoint an exact figure for these.

Curley said the budget cuts were particularly saddening given the “excellent history of partnership working” between the council and the local voluntary sector.

He said that if the cuts were made after the Department for Communities and Local Government published its Best Value Statutory Guidance, which advises local authorities not to make disproportionate cuts to voluntary sector providers, Navca would have been able to challenge the decision. But the council’s new budget was set before publication of the guidance.

Curley requested that Pickles take up the matter with the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Kay Cutts, asking her to look again at the budget proposals and reinstate some of the funding.

“I am writing to you at the request of Navca’s members in Nottinghamshire,” Curley wrote. “I do hope you will be able to intervene and help the voluntary sector in Nottingham.”

He also copied the letter to civil society minister Nick Hurd and Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association.

Directory: National Association of Voluntary and Community Action
Who's Who: Kevin Curley

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.