A COMMUNITY Trust featured in Globe last week as it went into insolvency says it is not to blame for the financial plight.

Mary Stones, acting general manager of The Beechwood Community Trust, says that the problems started because the Trust never received the money it was promised by Wirral council.

She told the Globe this week: "Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council agreed in December to support us with £69,000 of funds available through its planning and economic development panel. This was very welcome and the bank allowed us to increase our overdraft limit in order to pay staff...

"This money would have been enough to allow us to re-establish our income sources and provide the training and employment opportunities that are so desperately needed around here. But, the money promised has never arrived."

She says that as a result, the Trust has been left with a massive overdraft and no income - which means that staff have not been paid and are unable to pay mortgages and other bills.

As the Trust has not yet been officially wound up, members have not received P45s or any other official notice of their redundancy, meaning that they are unable to sign-on for income support.

Globe reported last week that nine members of staff had not been paid for several weeks. According to Ms Stones, the problem affects more than 20 people.

She also refutes claims made by some parents that the Sunnyhill Day Nursery was funded entirely by them. She says that some of the parents were unemployed and that seven children a week were placed in the nursery through money from the 'Chance To Work' fund.

And she says that the trustees - who have all worked tirelessly behind the scenes to try and make the Trust a success - now feel that all their work has been forgotten.

"We have all lost our jobs, because we have been misled by the Council," Ms Stones adds.

At the time of going to press, the council had agreed to give the Trust money to keep the day nursery running.

But Cllr Phil Davies, chairman of the economic regeneration committee, refutes the claim that the council misled the Trust - and says a new package of rescue measures is currently being discussed to keep other it going.

He said that the £69,000 originally promised to the Trust was a windfall from the winding up of another training company, and that assets were still available. However, if it was given to the Trust now, it would have to be used to pay debts and not for the Trust to run.

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