AN alcohol treatment service in Selby has suffered a funding cut of almost 35 per cent, meaning waiting lists are set to rise.

The Selby District Alcohol Service, based at Community House, offers help, support and guidance, and gives one-to-one and group care to individuals and families whose lives are affected by alcohol.

Now the service has been forced to reduce the hours when it is available, from 67 hours a week to 40, after funding cuts totalling £17,000 from North Yorkshire County Council, the NHS and the Probation Service.

Linda Slough, chief officer of the service, said: “While we understand that there has to be a reduction in some of the funding, we have been hit hard.

We never put all our eggs in one basket to ensure a mix of funding, so that if we lost one funder we could have possibly absorbed cuts, but facing cuts from all three funders has brought about this reduction in hours.”

Figures released in February by Alcohol Concern claimed that one full-time alcohol worker could save the NHS £85,000 per year through one-on-one assistance, and reduce the number of drinkers admitted to hospital.

Linda said: “The National Treatment Agency found that for every £1 invested in specialist alcohol treatment, £5 is saved on health, welfare and crime costs.

“So it can be seen that these cuts will in effect almost certainly lead to greater expenditure in both the short and long term for the funders. So what looks like a saving will in fact lead to even greater expenditure.”

Linda said the waiting list for the service was already at about 11 weeks, but this would almost certainly increase due to the funding decrease.

She said: “We have two members of staff who will now work 20 hours a week for the service. We’ve managed to get them administrative posts elsewhere in the AVS.”