THE names of the charities which face losing funding under council cuts have been released.

A number of voluntary organisations are devastated to learn that they now look certain to have their support severely reduced, and in some cases stopped altogether, for 2005-06.

Some are now facing the real threat of closure.

Jill Webster is the manager of Parks Advice Point, which gives advice on welfare benefit, housing, employment and debt.

For 2004-05 the charity received more than £50,000 funding from the council but now faces getting nothing.

She said: "We're absolutely gutted. It means unless we can get some short-term funding quickly we will have to close.

"We helped 3,229 people last year and we got £130,927.58 in unclaimed benefits for people.

"What would have happened to them if we weren't here?

"What will happen to the people who depend on us now?

"We help people all over Swindon, not just from the Parks.

"We're gutted but we're going to try and fight this.

"Even if they had cut it by half it would have given us time but to say that from April 1 we will not have anything is awful."

The council will meet on Wednesday, March 2 to give the grant recommendations the go-ahead.

But the charities fear there will be no U-turns.

Jaginder Bassi, from the Swindon Racial Equality Council, which has seen its funding cut from £131,416 to £90,043 said: "I suspect it will just be rubberstamped next week.

"For us it means lots of redundancies and it means the 60,000 people who came to us last year for advice will not be able to now.

"We will have to go from operating five days a week to one.

"We are astounded by the decision. We expected some cuts but not on this level.

"It's astonishing, they say we're getting £90,000 but it will actually be closer to £60,000. It's terrible news."

Swindon Child Carers, which runs crches while parents attend training courses, has had its funding cut from £19,889 to £3,000, which will go towards paying for staff salaries until April.

Director Madge Clements said: "It's very sad. We only found out on Wednesday and we don't know where we can get other money from.

"We've been going since 1987 but the state of the voluntary sector in Swindon now is very sad."

Coun Nick Martin, the council's cabinet member for finance, said many of the cuts had been made where there was more than one organisation offering a similar service.

He said: "As chairman of the finance team I have accepted a reduction in funding to bodies that were providing duplicate or inefficient services.

"There is a clear case that there is a lot of duplication, advice centres for instance will be encouraged to share premises and costs.

"There were some substantial sums of money going to duplicated causes."

Gareth Bethell