End of the Road for Popular Rye Charity ARRCC
By Jim Hollands
Regular readers will know that Rye’s Own has never been shy when
criticising East Sussex County Council and Council Leader, Keith Glazier
but things said about him and East Sussex C.C. relating to the demise
of popular local charity ARRCC by a local internet news service have
got Rye’s Own jumping to their defence.
The internet piece claimed that
“When government cut-backs began to bite, ESCC budgets were slashed
and ARRCC’s income was drastically reduced.
Absolutely untrue – ARRCC has not seen any cuts to the funding it
receives from the council.
The comments under the article blamed Keith Glazier and even Amber
Rudd for the demise of ARRCC.
An East Sussex County Council spokesman said:
“This building has been leased by the council to ARRCC Ltd, a registered
charity, on a peppercorn rent since 2014, with the company running
it as a creative arts centre and receiving rental income from resident
artists.
“We were in the process of agreeing a new lease, to replace the existing
one due to expire on April 5, but were made aware they were experiencing
significant financial difficulties. The directors had appointed a
recovery agent to review their status and had decided to place the
company in liquidation.
“As a temporary measure, we have agreed to take over management of
the complex to enable it to remain operational for an initial transition
period of three months, while we seek to set up new management arrangements
for its long-term future.
“The council has separately been commissioning ARRCC Ltd to provide
day care and home care services to around 40 adult social care clients
– older people and adults with disabilities.
“We are urgently working with all of these clients to provide alternative
services on a temporary basis to replace those provided by ARRCC,
and to find suitable long-term solutions to cater for their care needs.
“It’s regrettable that ARRCC Ltd, to which the council has provided
considerable financial support for a number of years, finds itself
in this situation.
“Our priorities now are to ensure that we are able to manage the transition
for our adult social care clients as smoothly and as sensitively as
possible and to agree arrangements affecting the future of the building
and its resident artists.”
Full story in May Rye’s Own in all Rye Newsagents Tuesday 1 May