A CHARITY that helps parents in need is shutting down in Bury due to lack of funds.

Home-Start Bury has received £69,000 from Bury Council since 2012 to support families with young children, helping them cope with bereavement, divorce, mental-health problems or disabilities, post-natal depression and other issues.

But town hall chiefs have not renewed that funding and the group's board of trustees have decided to close it for good.

Volunteers have criticised Bury Council, but it has blamed Government funding cuts.

The council had a pot called the commissioning fund, which gave £450,000 to good causes in the 12 months up to the end of March. But councillors decided to cut it to £300,000 until next April and axe it completely afterwards.

Home-Start Bury, which is based in Bury Business Centre in Kay Street, Freetown, is among the groups that has lost its funding completely.

A spokesman for the charity said: "It is an incredibly sad time here, not only for the staff and volunteers, but for the families we are seeking further support for.

"We have explored every possible avenue of potential funding, but need to be realistic about the financial mess that local government has found itself in."

Home-Start Bury volunteer Stella Jackson, of Brooklands Road, Holcombe Brook, said she was deeply disappointed with the closure and regarded as a retrograde move.

She added: "Families who have reached out to Home-Start have had their lives turned around through having someone who not only has the time to listen and model good parenting practices, but also to signpost to the appropriate professional sources of support.

"How much time and long-term community expense could be saved if children starting school did not come carrying the issues of those parents who are unable to cope?"

She cited the charity's success since it founded in 1974 — and in Bury in 1999 — as a tribute to its success and the needs that it has met.

The council's communities representative, Cllr Jane Lewis, praised Home-Start Bury for its work and added: "Home-Start Bury has known (from 2012) that this funding would cease in March 2016."

Cllr Lewis blamed "huge cuts" to council funding and said this situation is likely to worsen in future.

She added: "The inevitable consequence is that more and more groups will have to become self-reliant or find alternative sources of funding.

"However, we will continue to invest in early help and support for families and children, and there are a range of services that will continue to support and protect our most vulnerable residents."