Funding crisis for Canterbury's homeless charity, the Scrine Foundation
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Exclusive by Gerry Warren 
A charity which helps to look after homeless people in
Canterbury has been plunged into a funding crisis which
trustees say could force it to close in October.
All 66 full and part-time staff working for the Scrine
Foundation have been put on notice of losing their jobs.
The crisis follows the county council’s decision to
withdraw three service contracts worth nearly £600,000 from the
Foundation because, it claims, quality standards were being
failed.
Scrine's Board of Trustees said in a statement that it
refuted the alleged breaches and planned to appeal against the
KCC’s decision.
Chairman James Walker said: “The closure of the only night
shelter in Kent would, I believe, be catastrophic for homeless
people in the county.”
KCC senior manger for the scheme, Caroline Highwwood said: “We
have been working with the Scrine Foundation for about a year to
resolve the issues but there has not been the improvements we
required and we have a responsibility to ensure that tax payers’
money is spent responsibly."
The trustees, county council and city council are due to
meet on Friday.
Full story and reaction in this week's
Gazette.
Thursday, July 23 2009
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