Will the axe fall on us?

It will look at two scenarios: one based on increasing council tax by four per cent; the other based on a 10 per cent rise. Either way, there are likely to be more losers than winners as the council looks to save money through cuts.

Today we ask two charities, Sixth Sense Theatre Company and Age Concern, to explain what cuts will mean for them.

Sixth Sense artistic director Benedict Eccles

Established in 1986, Sixth Sense Theatre Company is a professional educational theatre company prioritising work with young people. It receives £30,000 a year from Swindon Council.

As a result of any cut, Sixth Sense will withdraw its services from Swindon and will focus on its work outside of the town.

The company produces issue-based plays educating young people and teachers about bullying, teenage pregnancy, drug misuse and prostitution, and creative theatre productions which assist the English and Drama curricula.

These tour to schools, theatres and arts centres in and around Swindon. The company also delivers a range of outreach and educational activities and runs Swindon Youth Theatre. This work is highly acclaimed nationally.

Sixth Sense turns over £150,000 a year for theatre activities for schools and young people in Swindon. This figure is made up of grants from the Arts Council, Southern Arts, Swindon Borough Council and from income the company earns.

The Arts Council and Southern Arts fund the company more than Swindon Council (and want to increase this finding by 150 per cent in 2003). But these grants are dependent on the local authority maintaining its present level of funding.

By cutting any of the council's £30,000 grant the town will lose a further £120,000 in match funding and earned income. The cut will also jeopardise £40,000 in National Lottery grants.

Any cut will also mean reduced employment and probably redundancies.

By cutting Sixth Sense's grant the council will force closure of nationally acclaimed projects such as:

n Residing Issues, a project educating more than 8,000 Swindon young people over two years about unplanned teenage pregnancy.

n Aesop's fables, a production used to help more than 7,000 Swindon primary schoolchildren with reading and writing.

n Swindon Youth Theatre, one of the largest in the country, which offers Swindon youngsters early evening drama activities after school.

The council is confirming that Swindon does not deserve city status because of its cultural record one of the perceptions of the last failed bid. The lack of cultural activities and investment leaves no one in doubt Swindon is a cultural desert and culturally void.

Jo Osorio, director of Age Concern Swindon

MY board of trustees has discussed the anticipated constraints on funding to social care services in the next financial year.

Once again the people most likely to suffer the consequences are those on the edge of vulnerability among them many older people.

While limited funds may mean essential services and support are provided for people with greatest need, increasing numbers of older people will not benefit from potentially preventive work. This will probably put more pressure on services in the future. And the possibility still remains that the council will not meet its statutory obligations to older people and others and will face legal challenge.

One of the likely consequences of an inadequate financial settlement for the council is a reduction of grant aid and support which it gives to essential voluntary and non-profit independent providers such as Age Concern Swindon. Reductions in grant aid or increases not in line with inflation reduce the contribution which organisations like ours can make to the complex pattern of social care services in our case, direct care services and help to around 500 older people every week.

The 20 per cent cut in grants we understand is being mooted would make it difficult for some to survive. A cut in grants which we make on behalf of the council to self-help lunch clubs serving around 20,000 meals a year to older people could prejudice their ability to meet the cost of rents for the premises they use in almost every ward in the borough and often owned by the council itself.

And at a time when the Government is encouraging the take-up of welfare benefits and is looking to Age Concern organisations to help achieve this, a cut in local advice services has much broader economic consequences than simply the failure of individuals to claim what is rightfully theirs.

Age Concern Swindon works in partnership with the council to achieve common aims to benefit older people and will continue to do so while it is possible.

But we deplore once again the threat to services as a result in inadequate funding and urge our MPs to make representation on behalf of the borough to the Government for a fairer settlement.