The new Labour Cabinet is responding to the support for RCRE from a wide range of communities earlier this year by extending grant support to the organisation from 11 July to 31 October in order to give them the opportunity to bid for a new contract for work on community cohesion.
Cllr. Bet Tickner, Lead Councillor for Public Engagement & Health, says: “RCRE has played a major role in Reading’s public life for over 40 years, and the way the Tories and LibDems tried to toss all that aside was just shameful. There was not only a 2000-signature petition calling for the grant to be reinstated, but a huge range of different community groups protested to the Council on RCRE’s behalf.
“So for RCRE’s funding to come to an end next week, before they had the chance to bid for any future work, was unacceptable, and that will be put right at Cabinet.
“The previous Coalition talked the talk about community cohesion, but refused to walk the walk. Saying, as they did, that community cohesion is everybody’s business and it would be up to the Council to take a strategic lead, has meant that it turned out to be nobody’s business. They had no plans to commission work on it. Labour made maintaining community cohesion one of its key priorities for Reading and we will be going out to tender for work which, especially given the way the recession could offer a breeding ground for groups like the English Defence League, we feel must be taken forward.”
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