TRUSTEES who have decided to close an award-winning women’s mental health charity have broken their silence.

The three trustees behind the Shipley-based Isis Project for Women and Children had met with service users and staff at a special meeting last month but have only just responded to the Telegraph & Argus to publicly explain their reasons for bringing the charity, which has run for more than two decades, to an end.

More than 300 women were last year referred to the well-being and recovery project which gets funding from local NHS chiefs but its users were left angry and in despair when letters were sent from the trustees breaking the news that all classes and groups at its John Street premises would be stopping this month.

On behalf of the other trustees Wilma Farrar and Christine Smith and herself, Mary Costello said it had been a “very reluctant” decision to close the Isis Project.

She said the trustees believed that future financing of the charity had been put in jeopardy because service commissioners intended to change to a tendering model rather than a grant giving model.

Mrs Costello also said the charity’s income had been slightly reduced and they had had to use some reserves. “The uncertainty about the future has had an impact on recruitment of board members. The actual number has steadily decreased. In spite of a significant push to recruit board members over the last six months we have reached a point of being in danger of falling below the minimum number required by our constitution to operate legally. In such a situation the board will not be able to make decisions.We are well aware personally that we are not getting any younger,” she added.

Among other factors contributing to their decision to shut the service, Mrs Costello said the lease of its current premises was such that if it had not given notice by mid April to vacate the premises by July 18, they could have been liable to pay rent for a further number of years and said: “We couldn’t afford to get caught.”

She also said the trustees had a responsibility to the project’s four employees and to use some of their cash reserves for that. “We regret very much that the timescale to closing service has been so short but has been driven by the combined impact of the factors described above,” she said.

Meanwhile, a campaign to try and save the charity from closing is building with hopes to salvage it. One of the campaigners, Jacqui Waring said: “It’s an insult that service users weren’t asked to be trustees.”

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