By Brian Allison, local government reporter

A NUMBER of projects funded through the Dundee Partnership with cash made available from the Scottish Government to deal with community regeneration, deprivation and employment could be facing closure because of a funding shortfall.

The partnership’s management group is due to meet tomorrow to consider a report on the allocation of more than £8.4 million of government funding.

Although that is in line with the sum received for the current financial year, the total amount available for projects will fall by £2.349 million because of the use of previous underspends this year.

The Government has stated its intention to combine the current Community Regeneration Fund with other funds and create a entity called the Fairer Scotland Fund from April.

There is a real prospect of redundancies among those employed in the Dundee projects which are not recommended for continued funding.

As yet it has not been disclosed which projects are under threat—that will not be made public until the management group has taken a decision on the report.

A spokesman for the partnership said the priority would be to advise organisations that are not being recommended for funding of the decision so they can plan accordingly.

“The Dundee Partnership will assist these organisations to ensure that an agreed approach is developed between the partnership and the organisation concerned in respect of the orderly run-down of projects,” he said.

“The next step will be to work with the organisations likely to be funded to develop new service level agreements and contribute to the outcomes required to be delivered by the Fairer Scotland Fund.”

Partnership chairman, city council administration leader Kevin Keenan, said, “The investment of £8.441 million in various projects throughout the city, while reduced, is still a very substantial investment and very welcome. It will allow many organisations to continue to operate some very successful projects.

“Where it will not be possible to fund projects in the future, I have asked officers of the council to help where they can to identify job vacancies, both within the council and the Fairer Scotland Fund, that would be suitable for employees of the organisations whose temporary employment will come to an end.

“Hopefully, many of these employees will be successful in applying for these posts.”