YOUTH workers and youngsters in Romsey are celebrating after county council bosses made a U-turn on plans to slash their funding this year.

Support services had been under threat as part of more than £800,000 in budget savings.

Youth in Romsey (YIR) manager Wendy Herbert said: “The news is fantastic and it means receiving continuous funding from Hampshire County Council and we have been searching for other sources. This has been extremely difficult and many organisations only want to fund new projects or one -off activities, not ongoing successful work.”

Launched in 1997 by the town’s churches, the charity supports 200 youngsters aged 11 to 25 every month, holding activities and helping with issues relating to education, employment, finances and sexual and mental health.

The cuts would have seen YIR lose up to 80 per cent from April which could have forced the charity to dramatically reduce its services to the town’s young people.

But a campaign was launched to persuade county bosses to rethink their plans.

Wendy added: “We have so much support in the Romsey area. We had a 700-name petition.”

She pointed out that currently YIR receives £57,467 from HCC to cover the cost of paying two full-time and two part-time staff and the organisation gets £22,600 from Test Valley Borough Council which covers the rent of the building and general running costs.

“We also receive funding from local organisations and individuals to run our special needs youth group – Allsorts – which operates once a week at Romsey Baptist Church. If the proposed cuts had gone ahead we would have only been able to run a service one day a week.

“We do not at present get any funding from Romsey Town Council. We would love them to consider helping to fund a youth worker so we could expand our services offering more opportunities for young people,” added Wendy.

She concluded: “We are extremely grateful to all those who completed the consultation, we know that we had an amazing response. Also thanks to everyone who signed our petition, who wrote to the Romsey Advertiser and who came into our centre to give us their support.”

Under the same round of cost-cutting plans almost £2m was set to be cut from the Short Breaks scheme , which provides respite for under-strain parents and stimulation for disabled children by providing trips and activities. But following a consultation with users it was decided to step back from making the cuts as part of this year’s upcoming county council budget.

A one-off grant from the council’s reserves will now fund youth support services, as well as the Short Breaks scheme for one year until other funding can be secured.

A statement from HCC said: “Cabinet recognised some proposed savings may not be achievable in the 2015/16 budget year, and would, therefore, require further financial support on a one-off basis for that period.

“This has proven to be the case for proposed changes to the Short Breaks Activities Programme and Youth Support Services.”