Some win, some lose in bids to serve community

For the first time, voluntary groups were asked to tender for three-year contracts from Warwick District Council last year, and not all received funding when contracts were announced last week.

Priority went to the district’s most deprived areas, with the Brunswick ward in Old Town, Lillington and west Warwick the focus.

But Sydenham community centre the Sydni Centre was not successful. Manager Kate Cliffe said it would have to look elsewhere to secure its future.

She added: “Sydni partners are disappointed not to win the tender but there simply isn’t enough funding to go around.

“Sydni will continue to meet the needs of people in Sydenham and offer our services to all who want to use them. The tendering process was a useful way of focussing on what we do and future funding will be easier to secure from other sources as a result.”

Warwick district’s Citizen’s Advice Bureau was among those awarded contracts. Manager Hilary Holland said it had bid to provide its ‘core’ service as well as collaborating with the Warwickshire Welfare Rights Advice Service and Coventry and Warwickshire Co-operative Development Agency, but added that without its ‘open door’ and telephone advice service, none of its other work would be possible.

In Lillington, The Chain, Lillington’s Children’s Centre, Lillington Youth Centre and Brunswick Healthy Living Centre formed a consortium with the aim of bringing the community together.

Among plans are a clinic to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and prevent teenage pregnancies, a ‘roof’ project to help young people leaving home and a worker to help unemployed people find jobs.

Hollie Hutchings, senior practitioner for targeted youth support, said: “It was a beautiful Christmas present for us and means we can target the really needy young people who need our support.”

The Gap community centre in Warwick will be reaching out to the Packmores estate. Director Vicky Jones said the centre would fund a community worker to find out what Packmores residents needed, eventually training community leaders.

Councillor Moira-Ann Grainger, who is responsible for community services, said every organisation that submitted a bid showed commitment to the people they help, but added: “Our budgets are limited in the current economic climate, but we have pledged not to cut the voluntary sector contracts budget.

“In order to do this we had to be clear that the partner organisations we support through these contracts provide a service that is responsive to our residents’ needs.”