COMMUNITY and voluntary groups in Rossendale have been dealt a blow after vital funding was cut.

The budget for outside bodies, revealed by the former Tory administration and now adopted by Labour, has seen a £108,000 year-on-year drop.

Support has been secured for a number of good causes, ranging from Citizen’s Advice Bureaux to The Star Centre, Bacup Consortium Trust (BCT), and the Horse and Bamboo Theatre.

But they did not get as much as they bargained for.

BCT wanted £21,373 and got £6,750, and theatre bosses asked for £6,000 and got £3,950.

However, the likes of the Council for Voluntary Service, which had asked for almost £20,000, and the 2nd Rossendale Scout group, which wanted £12,500 towards the cost of a disabled ramp, and Haslingden-based Agapao International, have lost out completely.

But the total amount requested, by 53 applicants, totalled £400,000, roughly three times more than this year’s pot.

Three-year deals have been secured with most of the organisations involved, with the £120,000 allocated for 2011/12 dropping to £106,000 in the two following years.