THE head of North Yorkshire’s health trust has being asked to reconsider a decision to slash funding to voluntary groups in York.

Barbara Boyce, chairwoman of City of York Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee, has written to Jayne Brown, chief executive of NHS North Yorkshire and York, asking her to postpone plans to scrap £150,000 in grants promised to various voluntary groups.

Coun Boyce said the immediate stopping of the cash would mean organisations were “unable to meet their obligations to staff and clients and be likely to incur additional expenditure such as redundancy costs”.

She said: “I am asking you in a personal capacity if you can reconsider this decision, even on a temporary basis. This would enable the Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) and other service providers to manage the cessation of their provision and to be able to put plans into place for reinstatement if happier times return.”

The call was backed by Angela Harrison, chief executive of York CVS, who asked for “some breathing space”.

She said: “No organisation can be told they have a 37 per cent funding cut in four weeks time.

“The Government has produced guidelines on cost savings: talk to voluntary groups, and look at the impact on people.

“We are resourceful and we care about the people we work with. We can’t do that in four weeks.”

Mrs Brown said: “I fully appreciate the impact of our decisions on the voluntary sector and I would like to reiterate that they were not taken lightly.

“We are facing some very significant financial challenges at present and we need to take appropriate action to protect NHS services for the majority.”

NHS North Yorkshire and York is currently trying to claw back an overspend of £17.9 million.

Mrs Brown previously said that the trust now had to enter into dialogue with the organisations it worked with to decide how best to spend its annual £1.1 billion the Government had allocated.