THOUSANDS of children across the borough could miss out on vital drugs education if its funding is cut. Life Education Centres (LEC) educate 8,000 children a year about the dangers of drugs education. Warwickshire County Council is considering cutting its £40,000 worth of funding - a move that would kill off the service. Now an appeal has gone out from John Glass, Warwickshire LEC chairman, to get the council to pledge support for the charity. Mr Glass, who is also a Nuneaton and Bedworth borough councillor, said: “Warwickshire County Council has made LEC a special case in the past and has always given it funding and so we’ve been okay. “The whispers are going around that funding for local councillors will be cut in the next budget and then we’ll lose services. “If we don’t get the funding and support from the council there’s no way we can access the schools, no way can we carry on. Without funding from the county council, there’s absolutely no chance we can continue.” Life Education started operating in Nuneaton and Bedworth 13 years ago following John’s mayoral appeal in 1996 when he was the civic head of Nuneaton and Bedworth. Soon afterwards it began to expand to every district across the county. Its mobile centres go to schools across the county, giving pupils advice about how to lead healthy lifestyles and the dangers of drugs and alcohol. For three years until 2006, the Warwickshire Drug Action Team funded Life Education but since then it has had to charge schools £3.10 per child per visit, with a minimum payment of £500. This means many schools cannot afford the service to teach their pupils. Cllr Glass said: “We’ve been working hand-to-mouth for all that time. Ever since the Drug Action Team cut the funding we’ve been going year-in, year-out to beg, borrow, or steal for funding. It’s fingers crossed at the moment. “I hope that councillors across the political spectrum will support our cause. It’s not for me, but for those people who are employed by the charity. It’s their living we’re talking about.” Warwickshire LEC covers the whole of the county with three educators and two mobile classrooms. A meeting of full council will decide the LEC’s fate on Tuesday February 9. | 
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