Centre forced to slash hours

The availability of the services at St Martin's Day Centre will be greatly reduced from April 2.

The facility on West Street will then only be open between noon and 2pm Monday to Friday. This compares to the current 9am-3pm weekday openings and 9am to 4pm on Saturdays. The total number of hours will reduce from 37 a week to just ten.

The number of staff at the building has also been cut to fit the reduced opening. Just one employee will be present at the centre compared to the present maximum of four. Volunteers will still be there.

The reduction in hours was announced this week by the centre's operator, Chichester Christian Association. Deputy chief executive Miranda Lichfield said: 'We are not very happy about having to only open the centre for such a short time.

'A lot of people who use St Martin's are homeless and not able to access services anywhere else. But cutting the hours is the only feasible option we have.

'The times we will be open are those when we have the most volunteers coming in to help us.'

Services such as refreshments, for a 50p charge, information and guidance, access to computers and appointments with resettlement staff will still be available at the centre.

But the new opening times will be subject to the availability of staff and volunteers and could change at short notice.

The cutbacks have been put into place by the association because of its failure last autumn to secure 100,000 from the Big Lottery Fund. This would have provided three years' running costs for the centre.

Officials at the national lottery-backed organisation said they had too many calls on their funding to be able to support the centre.

St Martin's opened in 2002 with the backing of some 300,000 of lottery funding.

It has been visited more than 5,000 times a year and has helped more than 800 people in all. Some 40 individuals at a time have been in the premises during its most popular sessions.

Ms Lichfield said some 5,500 had been raised by members of the community towards the centre's continued operation. This would be used as matched funding to attract grants from other sources.

But it was unlikely any of these would provide the six-figure sum needed to restore the opening hours. Talks with Arun District Council are continuing in the hope that it could provide some finance towards the centre's operation.

A new bid would also be made to the Big Lottery Fund in the coming months.