There is no question that the Barton Community Development Project has done good work.

The list of its top 10 successes we publish today makes impressive reading.

The Oxford estate would be a poorer place had the project not come into being.

Yet hopes of further strides in improving life for residents could be in jeopardy with the news that it is running out of money.

The future of the project is under threat because the £134,000 it received in Lottery funding three years ago is almost spent.

By the end of the month, the shutters may have come down.

We suspect that the organisers have left it rather late in their appeal for funds to keep going.

The city and county councils have set their budgets for the coming financial year, and council tax bills have already dropped on our doormats.

Whether either or both will have reserves of £20,000 to bail out such an enterprise at this late stage must be doubtful.

The plight facing the project, however, is not unique.

Too often, voluntary or semi-voluntary bodies are given money for a set time, carry out excellent work for their communities, then hit trouble when funding dries up.

Somehow, we have to devise a system which provides consistent and continual funding for groups that deserve it.