A pioneering Bradford community centre could close if its funding is more than halved, its leaders warned today.

Staff at the Karmand community centre are devastated that next year's grant from Bradford Council is recommended to be cut to £41,000. They say that unless they get more there is a fear the multi-cultural centre, which opened in 1983, could close.

A meeting has been called at the centre Barkerend Road tomorrow at 2pm to draw up plans to fight the recommendation.

Rashid Ahmed, centre co-ordinator for the past ten years, said: "We have managed on cuts of one or two or three per cent for the past few years but this is too much. When the Council wants to show off a success story they bring visitors to our centre. When we need its support, it is not there."

The centre holds out-of-school homework clubs and does a lot of work helping young people. Translation services, a creche and martial arts and sports groups which use the centre will all be affected.

The hall, which is used for weddings, could also be lost because there is no money for a caretaker.

And the leaders say if these services are lost the centre will also lose other sources of funding as a knock-on effect and it could ultimately be forced to close.

The allocation of grants to the city's voluntary groups - totalling more than £5 million - will be decided on Wednesday by the Council's executive committee.

Another group facing closure in April - when existing funding ends - is the Holme Wood Consortium in Knowles Lane. It has been told it will get no funding this year

Project manager John Turner said the organisation - which acts on behalf of 17 church, charity and voluntary groups in the Holme Wood area - brought in a wealth of grants including an £8 million three-year award from Sure Start, £385,000 for on-line centres and £20,000 from the European Social Fund.

Mr Turner said all this was brought in for the £29,000 cost of the Council grant which funded his salary, the premises and the wages of a part-time administrator.

"There is a feeling we have been too good," he said.

The consortium acts on behalf of groups across the board including the elderly, pre-school and disabled people and Mr Turner believes these too could be affected.

Deb Collett, branch secretary of the MSF/Amicus union, which represents about 300 people working in Bradford's not-for-profit sector, said: "We have been presented with a package of cuts that, for the most part, looks depressingly familiar. People are feeling shocked and betrayed."

A Council spokesman said; "A final decision on the grant applications has not been taken yet.

"On December 18, the Council's Exec-utive will consider the recommendations of the commissioning bodies regarding applications for voluntary sector grants for the financial year 2003/2004."