News Green Team face closure
The curtain may be coming down on one of the most popular charities in Goole, it emerged this week.
The Green Team, which provides gardening services for the elderly and disabled, says if new funding is not secured - which is looking increasingly likely - the charity may have to be wound down within a year.
This week the charity's co-ordinator, Elaine Pittaway, and project worker John Kilingbeck went cap in hand to Goole Town Council asking for funds.
But, while councillors assured them they would do all they could to help, they admitted the council's funding pot for local charities was running dry and financial help was unlikely.
Ms Pittaway told members at a full council meeting that if extra funds or savings weren't found soon, the charity could be facing closure.
"If the worst came to the worst we could probably run until next April and then maybe have to wind down," she said.
"It would be a great shame because we are very much needed. We are quite well known in the community and we have a trust built up with our clients."
The Green Team's Lottery funding is now nearing its end, making it vital that new financial backers are found. If not, the charity admits it may have to axe services in outlying villages - it currently covers a 10-mile radius - and confine its work to Goole and Old Goole.
Ms Pittaway later told the Goole Times: "A lot of organisations in the voluntary sector are having funding problems, not just us. There's obviously not that much (money) to go around."
She added: "It's a possibility we will close but nothing is certain at the moment. Obviously we are pursuing various avenues and closure is the worst case scenario, but there is a possibility that we could be wound up by next summer."
Un til now the Green Team, which was set up in 1998 as a joint venture between Goole Town Council and Boothferry CVS, has been getting by on Lottery money and the odd grant from the East Riding Council. Miss Pittaway said the charity still had "certain irons in the fire", but added that the scarcity of funding meant that much of the voluntary sector could be facing a bleak future.
The charity, which treats 500 gardens a year, is a vital service to many elderly and disabled people who rely on the charity to keep their lawns tidy by providing services, such as weeding, that they can't get from the East Riding Council.
Currently the charity's 25 volunteers provide services for 140 clients a year.
Without the charity, many service-users fear they would have to go without gardening services.
INUNDATED WITH WORK
Miss Pittaway said: "We are inundated with work, and over the last 10 years we've earned the trust of a lot of people who depend on us."
At Tuesday's meeting the town council said it would look into the possibility of letting the Green Team use its offices on Gladstone Terrace and the storage compound in West Park.
The idea was to save the Green Team some money - possibly as much as £2,000 - as it currently rents an office and storage space at The Courtyard on Boothferry Road. It was also mooted by some councillors that there might be a possibility the Green Team could find a new home inside the old pavilion in West Park, but it would first need renovating as the building has become derelict.
Brian Robertson, the clerk to the council who also sits on the Green Team's voluntary management committee, said if the council were to continue funding the Green Team, the money would not cover services in outlying areas.
He added that he had turned down an offer from Miss Pittaway to work for less money - which she was prepared to do to save the charity some much-needed cash - because she would have worked just as many hours for less pay.
'CASH-STRAPPED'
Miss Pittaway was told the council was "cash-strapped" in terms of its current budget for community groups. But councillors said they would do their best to help.
Cllr Jean Kitchen said: "I think we should support the Green Team as much as possible. They do an awful lot of good work."
And Cllr Shirley Marshall said: "I think it's very sad that something that's obviously been doing very well can't find some more accommodation."
Cllr Beryl Beck-Taylor said that if the The Green Team did founder it would make elderly and disabled service-users easier prey for criminals.
She explained: "If criminals know that these yards are untidy, they know that these people can't look after themselves properly and that means things like distraction burglaries are going to come back again in droves."
Cllr Beck-Taylor proposed a motion that the council looked into allowing The Green Team the use of the Gladstone Terrace offices and to move its equipment to the compound at West Park. The motion was carried.
Cllr Malcolm Boatman proposed that a working party be set up to look into ways of helping the team. That motion was also carried.
The Green Team is just the latest in a long line of local voluntary groups that have fallen on hard times because of a lack of funds.
* Earlier this year we told how the Goole & District Coalition for the Blind - which provides mentoring and befriending services for disabled people - was struggling to pay its quarterly rent and was facing the possibility of closure.
We also revealed how another popular charity, Talking Newpapapers for the Blind - which records newspaper stories for the visually-impaired - was facing its own financial crisis and could not attract enough volunteers with the right skills.
The Green Team is one of four noted community groups - including The Hinge Centre and the Goole & District Community Transport Group - which have made funding bids totalling more than £30,000.
But Goole Town Council, which has delayed a decision on the level of funding it will hand out, has only £2,800 left to give out to community groups when all other grant-aid is taken into account.
Published on 19th June 2008 in News.
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