A PIONEERING £500,000 project to provide retail training to hundreds of townsfolk will be scrapped if another organisation steps in to run a popular skills centre, currently managed by Redditch Council.

The Redi Centre, which receives £239,000 a year from the council, could close as part of a £1 million cost-cutting exercise.

Attempts to prevent its closure are being made and council chiefs are talking with a number of agencies, including NEW College, over the future of Redi and its management.

But, Redi manager Mike Smith said more than £500,000 Government funding for a specialist training scheme would be lost if any changes in management were made.

He said: "Redi wrote the bid, therefore, if Redi closes or is taken over, it changes the nature of the bid. The bid will be void."

The money has come through the Government's Ambition Retail scheme to Employment Services to ensure townsfolk have the right skills to take on hundreds of jobs created as the Kingfisher Centre develops.

Mr Smith said Redi, which is only one of five places in the country to receive the money, had a target to train 600 people and a further training centre had already been secured in the Kingfisher Centre.

He said the core clients were the unemployed, low waged and the unwaged but the focus was shifting to work more with employers and increase the amount of specific skills training which was required in Redditch, such as trade skills.

Mr Smith said the council provided Redi with a budget but funding came from other sources as well and if the centre was allowed to continue it would eventually become self supporting.

He said: "Each year the amount of funding the Redi needs from the council will reduce and the Redi will eventually be able to support itself through successful bid funding."