Two voluntary groups helping blind and epileptic people are furious after having their funding slashed.

Now the council's ruling Labour group is being accused of expecting the voluntary sector to provide services but not being prepared to pay for them.

Anne Smith, director of the Croydon Voluntary Association for the Blind (CVAB), said the group, which has had its funding halved this year to £5,000, has been unfairly penalised because it received a private legacy last year.

"We did receive a legacy but that's running out. We need £100,000 a year to keep going and the £10,000 was our only guaranteed income.

"Anything else is `keep your fingers crossed and hope it comes in' - I come out in a sweat every morning."

And Carole Rossington, secretary and founder of the Croydon Epilepsy Society, said a petition has been drawn up in protest at the decision to remove all funding in the next financial year.

"We have a service agreement with social services which said we should have 12 people attending our centre on average each day. But part of the agreement was that referrals would be made to us from social services, and that hasn't happened."

Conservative social service spokesman Margaret Mead accused Croydon of constantly "moving the goalposts" about who is eligible for a grant and who is not.

"How can we go to the voluntary sector asking them to help us more if grants keep getting cut?" she said.

But social services committee chairman Councillor Wally Garratt argued the council was not a `cash cow' and said CVAB had too much money in reserves to warrant a grant.

The Epilepsy Society received referrals from doctors, he said, not social services, and facilities were available elsewhere. The society had been given a year's grace to find other sources of funding, he added.

"We are always prepared to assist any of those organisation to seek out other sources of funding," he said.

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