A CHARITY rehabilitating young offenders, which is under threat because of a funding crisis, will have to wait until the end of the month to hear whether its £2-million bid to the Home Office funds is successful.
C-FAR had hoped to move into Burdon Grange Nursing Home at Highampton and relocate from Okehampton Camp where it has been running intensive residential courses for the past 22 months but has not been able to find the £1.7-million it needs to buy and convert the property.
However, a grant this week from the Home Office of £150,000 and a request for further evidence of the charity's work has left C-FAR chief executive Trevor Philpott quietly confident that he can secure funding before the lease runs out at Okehampton Camp in April.
'It is cutting it pretty fine but I still believe we can pull it all together,' said Mr Philpott, who had a meeting with Home Office officials on Monday. 'I do not believe they would have made the grant of £150,000 if they felt our work was not worthwhile.'
C-FAR has been asked to submit evidence relating to its success rate, previous offending background of individuals and changes that have arisen during the trainees' year-long programme, which includes nine-month mentor support.
Mr Philpott said he was pursuing every possible option to find the money to purchase Burdon Grange, which is on the market again. The £1.4 million a year needed to run the centre is covered by private grants and donations and money from the European Social Fund and the Community Fund.
'We will not roll over and give up,' he said. 'It is extremely frustrating because we know it works but it is just a case of getting it through to people.'
Over 60 per cent of trainees, who are taken from prisons in the South West or referred by the courts, complete the year-long programme and return to education, employed or voluntary work.
C-FAR, which only takes offenders who are committed to changing their lives, had hoped it would win pilot status approval from the Home Office because it is the first centre of its kind in the UK and is in line with the Government's move toward community rehabilitation.
Mr Philpott said it currently cost £30,000 to put a trainee through the C-FAR programme, which was half the cost of the same period in jail and 70 per cent of 19-year-olds who came out of jail re-offended within weeks and months.
Owner of Burdon Grange Maurice Thomas, who closed his property as a nursing home after 23 years in November, said he would like C-FAR to have it but he and his wife just wanted to sell up and retire.
'It has been 12 months since C-FAR first became interested and unfortunately we cannot wait forever,' he said. 'We have closed the place down and we need something to live on.'
The Thomas' have been trying to sell Burdon Grange for two and a half years and Mr Thomas confirmed that since it went on the market again at a price of £950,000 it had attracted other interest.
C-FAR's plans for Burdon Grange provoked a lot of opposition from residents in the village of Highampton who feared crime would increase and their house prices would fall.
But their arguments failed to convince West Devon Borough Council's planning committee when it approved the application to convert Burdon Grange last September.
MP for Torridge and West Devon John Burnett said he applauded the work of C-FAR but was concerned about the 'huge amount of public money it is asking for'.
'From what I can see C-FAR requires a considerable amount of public money to sustain it,' he said. 'I do not yet know whether its results so far and its projected results justify this expenditure.'
C-FAR's bid to buy Burdon Grange and the storm it has caused in the community is featured in part three of a BBC2 documentary 'Countrycide — Death of a Way of Life' on Monday at 11.20pm.