Trouble-hit Keighley Comm-unity Transport is facing yet another crippling body blow.

The voluntary organisation heard last week that Bradford Council is considering slashing funding by up to 50 per cent.

Barely four days earlier two community mini-buses were destroyed in an appalling arson attack at their garage compound in Holycroft Street, forcing bosses to consider cutting back services.

Now KCT's fate hangs in the balance as bosses wait for a decision from the council on whether it will go ahead and cut their annual funding by as much as £8,000.

KCT co-ordinator Steve Shorten said he had received a call from Bradford Council informing him of the situation.

He said: "They said they were thinking of cutting the grant by £8,000. After everything else that has happened my heart sank.

"It is a service to the community. We supply disabled people, deprived people on low income, sports clubs and nearly all the schools with buses at some stage over the year."

Chairman Brian Hudson added: "I'm gutted. We have got enough on our plates.

"We buy buses and they are burnt out, now they are trying to cut funding."

Steve is the only full time paid worker at KCT. The grant money, totalling £16,017 a year, is allocated to office running costs and is used to pay part of his salary.

The co-ordinator explained: "Under a section 19 minibus permit we are allowed to use drivers with an ordinary licence, but we cannot pay any salary out of the income from the buses.

"So the income for my salary has to come from somewhere else. We have to use interest from the bank to top it up, if there is money there that we are saving for a vehicle.

Brian Hudson added: "They asked if he could manage on half the funding, and he said only by cutting his wage in half. That is a nice little kick in the teeth isn't it? What are we going to do without an organiser?"

A Bradford Council spokesman said: "The final decision will not be made on whether funding is to be cut until the Community Grants Commissioning Body makes its recommendations to the Executive Committee on December 17.