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Reprieve for popular breastfeeding café
A MUCH LOVED breast feeding café has been given temporary reprieve – but is still under threat of closure.
The Breastfeeding Peer Group meets every Friday at West Green Youth Centre and runs a cafe where new mums are offered advice.
But volunteers Sharon Wright, 41, and Christina Irvine, 29, who have been running the group for three years, say West Sussex PCT is withdrawing funding.
It was feared it would be forced to close on August 28 but the PCT says money is available to fund the group until March next year while it evaluates the service.
Sharon, a mum-of-four from Broadfield, said: "I am very disappointed, I suffered from post natal depression myself and I know that you need support.
"It's just really sad."
A PCT spokesman said: "The PCT is fully committed to supporting mums to breastfeed their children, but we have a duty to evaluate all services to ensure they are effective and offer value for public money in the long term. The issue with the group is not simply one of funding - additional money has been made available until March 10 next year, while that evaluation takes place. The issue is around recruitment, and the problem of employing staff on short term contracts until the evaluation is complete."
For the full story see this week's Crawley Observer.
What do you think about the temporary reprieve? Leave your comments below or email us at kirk.ward@sussexnewspapers.co.uk.
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Weather for Horsham
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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