A Nottingham-based community support charity has announced its closure amid financial struggles after “clinging on for years”.
The Bridges Community Trust, which has provided services including food banks and employment support in the Meadows neighbourhood of Nottingham since 1996, is set to close in May.
This Friday, the charity will hold an extraordinary general meeting to vote on its dissolution, although it has already begun transferring its assets to local charities.
The trust currently runs with three members of staff – a manager, a café chef and a finance officer – but will close its café, which hosts many of its support services, on 9 May.
If the vote for dissolution is passed, all three employees will lose their jobs.
The trust has been running at a deficit for the last three financial years, with its most recently recorded income for the year to March 2024 standing at £146,000 while its total expenditure was over £169,000.
‘End of an era’
Miriam Gifford, chair of the trust, described the closure as “the end of an era” to the BBC.
“The fact is, we have run out of money,” she said.
“You need an employed person [rather than a volunteer] to run the trust and handle the financial side, but we simply can’t afford it anymore.”
The charity also cited financial challenges since the Covid-19 pandemic, including increased employer national insurance contributions and decreased local funding, as reasons for its closure.
Gifford further told the BBC that the trust had opened a small cafe at the Nottingham council-owned Queens Walk Community Centre in December, in an attempt to raise funds to avoid closure.
However, the cafe did not generate enough income to cover staff salaries.
Gifford added: “We’ve been clinging on for years. We hoped the cafe would help sustain us, but new ventures take time to grow, and sadly we ran out of time.”
Civil Society has contacted the Bridges Community Trust for comment.
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