Council to review CVS closure

WARRINGTON Borough Council is to carry out a review of the likely impact on the town of the decision to close the century-old Council for Voluntary Service.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the borough council and following a motion from the opposition Liberal Democrat group calling for such a review.
Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Ian Marks (pictured) welcomed the decision.
He said: “It is always sad when something closes after 100 years of operation. To have continued for so long tells me that the CVS must have been providing a useful service to the people of this town.
“We are very grateful to the staff, past and present, at CVS for the service they have given.”
The CVS says the closure will be phased over the next six months – and Cllr Marks said this would be a difficult period.
But he added: “I am sure the staff will be very professional about this.
“In Warrington we are extremely fortunate in having such an active and vibrant voluntary sector. We get extraordinary good value from all the hours put in by our volunteers.
“In the council budget we put forward in the spring, we made a deliberate point of making smaller than average cuts in grants to the voluntary sector to try and safeguard organisations’ viability.”
Cllr Marks said the proposed closure was partly for financial reason, but there were also other organisations providing similar services.
“I am hopeful that in the future most if not all of the services can be carried on in one way or another and hopefully some of the current staff can be involved in this. However it is important to ensure that services do not fall through the net.”
Cllr Marks said it would not be necessary to have a major, time-consuming review. A simple exercise to check the town was not losing out was all that was necessary.