A SALE arts group which caters for adults with learning disabilities is facing a bleak New Year because of council funding cuts.

The Wild Colours Art Group, which opened its first winter exhibition, at Sale Waterside Arts Centre, has run out of money and could go to the wall by the end of December, unless £2,000 is found, despite being told it will be funded by the National Lottery for one year from April 2015.

According to tutor Thomas Schrubsole, the group which was first established in 2008, had its funding provided to the group by Trafford Council, until it was cut by 50 per cent last year, while the remaining grant was totally axed for 2014/2015.

Since then it has meant the group has been forced to go cap in hand to a variety of charities and organisations, including the Lauriston Trust and the Sale Mayoral Fund, who both provided funding from September to Christmas. At the beginning of December, the group's was informed the National Lottery, would fund the group from April.

Thomas said: "While the National Lottery funding is fantastic news, we still urgently need to plug the funding gap until April.

"Our shortfall is thankfully now less, but there is the problem of not being able to return after Christmas.

"This means our target now is to plug a £2,000 gap with this we would be able to run for the first quarter of the year until April when the National Lottery grant would kick in.

"We've only got just a few weeks to raise the £2,000 so things are still very uncertain for the immediate future despite the excellent news for later next spring."

Priory ward councillor Andy Western, who has condemned the cuts, said: "It's really sad they are still facing closure, when it helps so many people, but this is a symptom of the continued cuts, which have left hundreds of voluntary community groups such as this, high and dry, with no funding."