Health chiefs have been urged to change their minds and restore funding for an advice line for the disabled.
Two senior members of the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) sat through a succession of angry and passionate pleas and questions from councillors.
The exchanges ended with a formal request from members of Brighton and Hove City Council for the CCG to rethink the £29,000 cut in funding for Possability People.
The charity’s chief officer Geraldine Des Moulins told the council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) that they were given less than three weeks’ notice that their funding was being cut.
Ms Des Moulins told the committee that Possability People runs a range of services to support people with disabilities and had seen a huge increase in demand for its services, helping thousands of people a year.
Alternative providers suggested by the CCG were either inaccessible or already oversubscribed, she said.
She added: “There are people coming to our doors who cannot even open an envelope without our support because their anxiety levels are so high.
“We are the only service that offers a drop in.”
Ms Des Moulins said that the charity, which won a Queen’s Award for its work, should have had three months’ notice and knew the funding was being reviewed.
She told the committee that it felt as though all the supporting information sent to the CCG disappeared into a “black hole”.
The CCG’s clinical chair, David Supple, and director of commissioning Ashley Scarff faced tough questioning as councillors highlighted how the cuts hit some of the most vulnerable members of society.
Green councillor Tom Druitt asked why the CCG had not told the council that it was withdrawing funding during budget meetings in November and December, before the councl set its budget in February.
At a joint meeting of the council, Possability People and the CCG in December, he said that the council was told that no decision had been made about funding for the charity’s contract.
Councillor Druitt said: “If we had known, we could have proposed an amendment to the council budget and retained the service.
“It just seems the CCG has withheld information or not made a decision, twice, ahead of the council budget.
“If in November we were told it was at risk, or in December or at any point in January, we would have had the opportunity in February to plug the gap.
