THE AWARD-winning community organisation Ngage has described the decision of Thurrock Council to pull all of its funding as “absolutely devastating”.
Speaking to YourThurrock, Chair John Peters told how staff feel that years of work has been laid to waste.
John said: “We had been in negotiation with council officers for some time and expected a percentage cut but to lose all our funding has been very hard to take.
“Jacqui Payne has given eleven years to the support of the community and has taken this particularly hard.”
Ngage won Best Company in the Community Award at the Thurrock Business Awards in 2008.
The staff of John Peters, Jacqui Payne, Wendy Mayo and Debbie Buck had become known as the cornerstone of community organisations from their support for community forums to their christmas community event at the Civic Hall.
The funding loss calls into question the future of the community forums and may lead to questions as to how Thurrock Council will address the recent damning government report into community cohesion.
Ngage expressed their disappointment that they had not been contacted by the Portfolio Holder, Cllr Joy Redsell.
what a shame… this needs to be addressed urgently! If the council cant see what valuable service they provide to the communities they need to be evicted. Its such a small amount of funding if you look at the bigger picture, but makes local communities so much better. I wonder if this funding cut will go towards the purchase of a bunch of new dust carts?
Cant Belive this has happened, Community Forums would not exist with out Ngage, as well as all the other work they do for the community instead of cutting something that works already look at things that dont, there are now other organisations who are encroaching on the work Ngage does, the imposter needs cutting not the orginal.
a real shame …if you ask around the community, ngage’s work will be evident especially in community groups. Typical action from a Council that totally lacks vision and leadership.
Agree with Frodosdad ….