Outgoing Navca chief executive Kevin Curley has used his first member newsletter of 2012 – and his last as CEO – to urge local councils for voluntary action not to accept further spending cuts as a fait accompli, but to fight them.

The newsletter, titled ‘New Year resolution and determination’, reminds Navca members of all the tools and resources now available to them to help them resist statutory funding cuts, such as the government’s own Best Value Statutory Guidance issued last September.

Curley described the guidance, which essentially aims to stop councils from cutting voluntary sector budgets more deeply that they cut their own services, as "powerful - meaning that if it is ignored by your local council it could form the basis of a legal challenge".

He also urges CVSs not to underestimate the importance of their local Compact, reminding them of the Public Law Project’s comment in December that any breach of the Compact in the context of the Best Value Guidance could be perceived as a statutory breach "with potential legal consequences".
 
Curley told civilsociety.co.uk that he intended the newsletter to strike a positive new year note, to fire up local CVSs "not to simply whinge about the cuts, but to fight them".
 
Navca is hosting a half-day workshop on 'Using the law to fight the local cuts' in Leeds next Tuesday afternoon. 

Kevin Curley is retiring from Navca later this month and handing the reins to Joe Irvin.