A CRUCIAL volunteer centre in Worcester could be forced to close unless a late rescue package can be secured to keep it going.

After years of increasingly harsh cuts Worcester Volunteer Centre could be weeks away from shutting down unless council funding can be finalised to safeguard its future.

The Worcester News can reveal how the centre, based in The Tything, needs around £18,000 to continue past March and is locked in talks with the city council.

The body, which matches up volunteers with worthy causes around Worcester, has called in outside consultants to assess the books, who have concluded that the only solution is a takeover with another organisation.

Under the rescue proposal Worcester Community Trust would take it over, but it needs £18,000 from council coffers before a deal can be agreed.

Under the bid Worcester Volunteer Centre's community transport function, known as 'Worcester Wheels', would carry on as a standalone service under a slimmed-down separate organisation.

Consultant Gareth Blackett, a director of Accessibility Solutions Ltd, who is working on the hopeful transfer, said: "A city the size of Worcester really needs a volunteer centre.

"The bottom line is, it would be impossible and remiss of me to expose what's left of the organisation to future risk, Worcester Wheels is the only bit which brings in income.

"The charity's discretionary grant has become increasingly difficult to obtain - there is a solution to this, but it needs that funding.

"We are talking about a marginal investment which would retain a very significant service."

He said volunteering was a huge help to people across the city, insisting the small outlay would deliver big benefits.

Some of the current volunteer roles the body is recruiting for include call handlers for McMillan Cancer Support, drivers to deliver food to the YMCA, the befriending of vulnerable people for Deaf Direct and ringing up older lonely people for a service called 'Silver Line'.

Helen Scarrett, Worcester Community Trust's chief executive, told the Worcester News: "We know the value of this volunteering service and what it does for people who need help.

"We'd love to take it on but we need that money - we want to help, but we don't have the capacity to do it without the funding.

"We don't have the money to do everything we want to do, some things are already run on thin air.

"We've said 'this is what we can do' because we want to help keep it going."

Talks with the city council are ongoing, with another meeting due to take place next week.

Mr Blackett has raised his concerns with the council's scrutiny committee, which is hoping an agreement can be found.

Councillor Jo Hodges, a fellow committee member, said they have been left "in no doubt at all" that the centre cannot continue as it is.

"To me, in a city the size of Worcester, it's vital we still have an organisation of that sort," she said.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, scrutiny committee chairman, said: "Plenty of councillors will have heard that message."

The council's 2017/18 budget is due to be voted on next month.