Reprieve for cash-strapped addict centre

A cash-strapped centre helping addicts in Cromer has been given a stay of execution after securing some much-needed funding - but will still close if a further �40,000 is not found.

A cash-strapped centre helping addicts in Cromer has been given a stay of execution after securing some much-needed funding - but will still close if a further �40,000 is not found.

It was feared The Junction on Garden Street, which is run by the Matthew Project, would shut once its current money pot ran out in September this year, just two years after it was opened.

But after months of meetings with MPs, local organisations and charitable trusts, the centre has at last managed to find some of the money it needs.

Julian Bryant, director of The Matthew Project, said: 'We have managed to get two-thirds of the money that we require. We still need to fundraise about �30,000 to �40,000 a year to keep the place going but we are now more positive than we were.'

The money, which has come from a mixture of charitable trusts, individual donors and NHS Norfolk, potentially gives The Junction a three-year reprieve but only if the centre can fundraise enough to plug the gap.

They will hold a jumble sale at Cromer community centre on June 6, monthly coffee mornings will start on July 1 and eight people are set to do a daring sponsored parachute jump on July 25.

To sponsor The Junction's parachuting team, visit www.justgiving.com/jumpingjunction, or, if you would like to help the centre with its funding, contact The Matthew Project on 01603 626123.