I FEEL I must respond to the front-page article "CAB on verge of collapse," (Advertiser, November 3).

Redditch Community Commonwealth exists to support voluntary and community sector groups in the town, particularly those who want to access additional funding to develop their work.

Following the decision of Redditch Borough Council to cut CAB's grant, both myself and the Commonwealth's Network Co-ordinator made strenuous efforts to contact the CAB to discuss how we could work with them to strengthen the financing of their work. Our calls went unreturned.

Not put off by this, we wrote to CAB and advised them the Commonwealth was inviting bids for £20,000 of funding specifically for groups providing advice and guidance in the town.

When the deadline for applications was reached without an application from the CAB, we even extended the deadline by a week to give them a chance to make a submission but still they failed to respond. Instead, the money was given to a range of other organisations in the town.

While I am certainly not paid to defend the borough council, I feel it is only fair to point out to your readers if an organisation turns down the opportunity to access £20,000 of funding, the council can be forgiven if they are somewhat bemused the same organisation claims to be on the brink of collapse following a £10,000 cut in its council grant.

The Community Commonwealth is extremely keen to work with the CAB to ensure they remain a strong presence in the town.

But to do that the CAB does have to respond to the many offers of help that have been made to it.

A good first step might be to attend the "Moving Forward Together" conference scheduled for January 14, which has as its theme joint working between the council and the voluntary sector.

Alan Fraser

Chair, Redditch Community Commonwealth

Redditch YMCA

Church Hill