I AM amazed to hear that East Cambs District Council is thinking about ending its 18-year relationship with ADeC. This is a well loved, well run, community inspired organization that is part of Ely s cultural history, as well as providing arts and entert

I AM amazed to hear that East Cambs District Council is thinking about ending its 18-year relationship with ADeC.

This is a well loved, well run, community inspired organization that is part of Ely's cultural history, as well as providing arts and entertainments, ADeC also runs projects aimed at the young people based in the East Cambs area. These projects allow them to express themselves in all manner of ways - take these away and what will they all do? Would we then be reading about how the council is then complaining about the amount of young people there are on the streets, will the council then have to come up with another scheme to combat the problems that will arise from closing down this incredibly worthwhile project?

And to do all of this without even consulting ADeC makes me lose faith in how the council views the third sector. We work tirelessly to create strong community groups that benefit as many people as possible without profit to ourselves and are constantly battling to find funding and backing from anywhere possible.

Any community organization would rather have discussions on how to keep the project running with the money available rather than just have the programme ended. I think it would only be fair for ADeC to be given the opportunity to work with the council to ride through these cutbacks rather than to just be stopped in their tracks. 18 years of hard work and dedication will just be taken away - is that the way for the local council to treat their local community?

I would hope that this is a decision that has not yet been made, I would hope that ECDC will have the courtesy to discuss things further with ADeC and I would hope that ECDC will see sense and realize that what they will lose will never be compensated by the money they may save

EMMA FURNESS

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