COMMUNITY groups have been dealt their biggest blow yet in their battle to secure funding from cash-strapped Swindon Council.

Coun Nick Martin, who is heading-up this year's budget, told a poorly-attended meeting that groups have enjoyed generous funding for years and assumed that the cash-pot was bottomless.

His comments at a public meeting held at the Euclid Street chambers last night angered representatives who were sat in the public gallery.

The rhetoric comes as the council directed by central Government to keep council tax hikes down to low single figures contemplates making £10m of cuts.

Coun Martin (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms) said: "There is this myth in Swindon that if you receive funding this year you should get it next year.

"A lot of groups have had funding for decades. In the case of advice centres we want to consolidate some to provide a more cost-effect service."

Paul Dixon, a funding and resources advice worker for Voluntary Action Swindon a charity that offers advice to groups including Age Concern Swindon hopes to get £70,000 from the council pot this year.

He said: "Until now we have relied on lottery cash that runs out very soon.

"I do not believe that this council is looking at the knock-on effects by talking about possible cuts to the voluntary sector.

"If groups and projects are forced to close there will be significant knock-on effects for the town including rises in anti-social behaviour."

Julie Allen, advisor for Cooperative Futures, which helps hundreds of voluntary groups in Swindon become self-sufficient, demanded a cast-iron guarantee that smaller groups would not be hit.

"Any loss of funding to these groups would have a terrible effect," she said.

"Councillors have choices these people don't."

Warehouse worker Robert Pike, 25, from Moredon, claims his council tax bills have increased 47.5 per cent over the past four years. He told the meeting: "I do not smoke and I do not drink. I work 12 hours a day including weekends and I struggle to make ends meet.

"What will the council say when I tell that I can't afford to pay my council tax?

"The mortgage is my main priority followed closely by food and utility bills. Council tax is right down at the bottom."

Council leader Mike Bawden believes a rise of just three per cent can be achieved if the right savings are made.

Meanwhile, he said he was disappointed by the level of turn-out, which saw less than a dozen seats occupied by members of the public.

"I would have expected many more people to have attended," he said. "We want to hear the views of the people of this town. Can we take from this that most people are happy with what we are proposing?"

The final budget will be set in February.