The Community Alliance has expressed “dismay” at the Department of Communities and Local Government’s (CLG) decision to scrap its intended third sector strategic partners scheme, which has been in the making since last June.

The Alliance, which consists of bassac, Community Matters and the Development Trusts Association, said that it was now a matter of urgency that an alternative scheme be put forward, which the CLG has failed to do thus far.

The scheme itself was born out of the Third Sector Strategy for Communities and Local Government, published by the CLG last June. In it the CLG said that a partnership programme “would provide greater certainty, efficiency and the potential to develop deeper relationships”.

However, according to bassac’s chief executive Ben Hughes,“This is precisely the type of action that will fundamentally erode the hard-earned trust that has been developed between CLG and the community sector. We urge CLG to clarify their vision in relation to the community sector, which must recognise equality for any meaningful progress to be made.”

The Alliance said that the scheme had been dropped despite extensive work during the bidding stage, with substantial and detailed applications having been prepared and submitted in December 2007. “In light of this, to pull this scheme so many months later, and when we are already in the financial year in question, seems bizarre,” said the Alliance’s director Bec Clarkson. “It also raises questions for us about how seriously CLG take community organisations as partners if it is going to treat us in this manner.”