VOLUNTARY organisations across Oxfordshire face tougher times finding helpers after cutbacks at the county's key recruitment centre.

The main umbrella organisation for the voluntary and community sector in Oxfordshire has failed in its bid to win an additional £50,000 grant from the county council.

Now Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action (OCVA) has warned the Volunteer Centre, which it runs to find volunteers for hundreds of groups, could be under threat. News of the OCVA's difficulties emerged just as the Government and David Cameron's Conservatives have been talking up the importance of the voluntary sector in local communities.

The OCVA has already released two members of staff in recent weeks, who are not to be replaced. And it says it is having to scrap one-to-one services offered at its Volunteer Centre, aimed at helping volunteers find the most suitable organisation to join.

The organisation's problems stem from a fall in funding from the European Social Fund, with social funding increasingly targeted at new member states in Eastern Europe.

At the same time funding from Volunteering England, which allowed the OCVA to expand its volunteer bureau in Floyd's Row, Oxford, has now ended.

Chief executive, Alison Baxter, said: "We are balanced in a precarious position to keep our services ticking over."

Charles Waddicor, director of social and community services, said: "The council was unable to respond to a request by the OCVA for a significant increase in funding, because of the council's need to keep costs down and any increase in council tax to a minimum."