Regular readers of this newspaper will be well aware that many local groups and organisations appear to be in desperate need of cash. We frequently carry stories about the fears of some voluntary or community group or other that will have to cease the useful work it does and shut up shop because it can't acquire the resources to enable it to carry on. Some then do indeed go on to fold.

How surprising it is, then, to hear a charity funding body say that it has £450,000 that it can't give away because there are so many other cash sources available to groups in and around Bradford.

Given the crisis claimed by so many of these groups, it seems almost unbelievable that such a pot of money should remain untouched. If it can't get rid of it by the end of March, West Yorkshire's Local Network Fund (LNF) will have to give the money back to the Department of Education and Skills and will have its budget cut for next year.

There is clearly something wrong with a system that allows a situation to arise under which so many funding bodies are competing to give away cash, yet so many voluntary and community groups are struggling for want of it. There needs to be some sort of co-ordination between the funding bodies so that if one cannot meet the needs of applicants it can point them towards another which has a surplus.

Meanwhile, local groups who need extra funds should apply to the LNF without delay. If they don't use it, they'll lose it.