Nottinghamshire County Council has refused to change its budgets for the local voluntary sector despite a letter from Eric Pickles asking it to reconsider its proposed cuts.

Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, wrote to the Council in January asking it to ensure its grant aid funding arrangements for the voluntary and community sector are in line with government guidance after a lobby by charity sector leaders from the area.

Pickles wrote: "On the face of it, the cuts that your council have made to its grant aid budget for voluntary sector groups appear to be disproportionate. I would be grateful if you could reconcile your council's decision on funding the voluntary and community sector to the strategic guidelines."

The Council's response letter from its deputy leader, councillor Martin Suthers, counters that the authority has followed the guidance and provided three months' notice for this year's funding by extending the current grant aid arrangements until the end of June.

Suthers writes that the Council is "providing an additional £50,000 of grant aid for 2012/20. This is despite the fact that the council faces further significant budget reductions and increasing demands on its statutory services."

He also said: “Our grant aid reductions may appear more significant than other county councils’, but this just reflects the fact that our original budget was larger than many other county councils’. In fact our current grant aid budget now brings us more in line with other councils."

Both Pickles’ and Suthers’ letters can be found here.

Borough council also opposes County’s actions

Gedling Borough Council has also written to Nottinghamshire County Council – its constituency leader – protesting about the new budget, which saw funding for the sector cut by 56 per cent cut from 2010/11 to 2011/12.

Jo Dean of Nottingham CVS, who attended the Gedling & County council meetings as a private citizen, commented: “I was pleased that Gedling was taking it seriously – the decisions the county council take have a massive impact at district level.”