ACCRINGTON soap star Julie Hesmondhalgh said alleged withdrawing of funding to an East Lancashire counselling service “makes no sense”.

The 44-year-old actress, best known for her award-winning portrayal of Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street, spoke out after Maundy Relief, based in Accrington, said funding worth around £40,000 was withdrawn by East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), as bosses look to redesign counselling services.

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Lucy Hardwick, the manager of Maundy Relief, said the CCG no longer wanted to pay individual organisations to provide the services, and is instead looking for a “consortium” to run the contract.

She said she fears the move is more about “box ticking” and meeting waiting targets than ensuring good care, and called for the CCG to rethink its decision.

However, health bosses yesterday told The Lancashire Telegraph the charity pulled out of the running for funding, and said cash would still be given towards anger management sessions for the next year.

Speaking to a national newspaper, charity patron Julie said: “It’s incredibly difficult to see an NHS counsellor. Maundy Relief do great work stepping in.

“I’ve been involved with the charity about 15 years. This is incredibly damaging news for the community.

“It is a special place and does such important work – it doesn’t make sense for them to lose their money.”

Mrs Hardwick said: “It is a great sadness that a wonderful and well-run service for local people is not being supported by our NHS.

“We desperately want to continue the service but it seems very unjust that we now have to raise donations from our loyal supporters.

Mental health commissioning manager Joy Arrandale said: “Maundy Relief were initially funded for one year to deliver a counselling service with monies that were a one-off.

“As part of the CCG’s commitment to ensuring that local residents have access to high-quality psychological therapies, including counselling, a programme of work has been developed to bring all our voluntary sector organisations together to deliver an East Lancashire-wide counselling service.

“Maundy Relief were invited to become part of this project but they declined, therefore, it was their decision not to be part of this.”