ELEVENTH hour talks and the support of a former Conservative Party leader were not able to prevent a pioneering rehabilitation centre for young offenders going into voluntary liquidation last week. Trustees at C-FAR (the Centre for Adolescent Rehabilitation) held crisis talks at its Highampton base right up until last Friday lunchtime before finally conceding defeat in their battle to overcome a funding shortfall. Fifty-five members of staff will lose their jobs with the closure of the centre and 16 trainees who were in the process of going through the residential ?Life Change? programme have been found alternative accommodation. The charity has a stay of execution for a fortnight and work is continuing to try and find a deal to save C-FAR in that time. Chief executive Lt Col Philpott said the centre had been forced to close because of a lack of Home Office funding. He said: ?We just hope common sense will prevail. When you listen to the policy statements that are coming from the government, it doesn?t make sense to throw away what we are doing here.? Lt Col Philpott said Tim Jones, chair of the Devon and Cornwall Business Council was also working with the business community and other agencies on C-FAR?s behalf. ?He is trying to help in any way he can because crime is expensive for businesses,? said Lt Col Philpott. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith was at Highampton last Friday to lend his support. In October 2002, Mr Duncan Smith praised C-FAR?s work after visiting the centre to see at first hand its work. Mr Duncan Smith wrote to Tony Blair last week asking him to help save the centre and vowed to raise the issue in parliament. Mr Duncan Smith said C-FAR offered ?excellent value for money? as the average cost of a prison place was currently £37,500 per annum, whereas at C-FAR the average place costs £24,000 for a year-long course, consisting of pre-release counselling, eleven-week residential course and nine-months support in the community. C-FAR was established by Lt Col Philpott five years ago with the aim of taking persistent male offenders aged between 18 and 24 and rehabilitating them through an intensive residential course at the centre, followed by mentor support when they returned to the community. Lt Col Philpott said the charity would only sell off its assets, including its base at Burdon Grange, Highampton, once every possible avenue of funding had been exhausted. He thanked everyone who had contacted C-FAR to offer support during the past fortnight. ?We have had amazing support from the general public. We thank people who have written letters to the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary and have made financial contributions as well.? The Winsford Trust, the Halwill Junction-based community-led charity, was also saddened to hear of C-FAR?s closure. In a letter to Home Secretary Charles Clark trust chair Sandra Willetts said Winsford had welcomed trainees from the centre on a regular basis. She said: ?The boys have always enjoyed their days with us. They have been involved in general maintenance as well as social activities with our clients, who look forward to their visits. ?In fact, at one point they organised their own fundraising activity for us by holding a sponsored car wash. ?I know from our own experience that C-FAR is encouraging and nurturing a ?social conscience? in these young men and that can only be a good thing for them and the country as a whole.?
