A CHARITY that has provided work for people with learning disabilities for 24 years has been forced to announce its immediate closure because of funding problems.

The Industrial Therapy Organisation (ITO) in South Oxhey, provided a working environment for 40 clients who have been directed to them through channels such as social services, or other charities for people with learning disabilities.

But in September the board of directors at the trust have been told that Hertfordshire County Council will not be renewing their contract, meaning they have to shut down immediately.

Chairman of the board, Robert Hill, said: "It has come as a terrible shock to find out that we will have to close with immediate effect.

"We have explored all possible options, but without funding and the money needed to repair the building we are helpless.

"Realising that we had no option but to close was one of the saddest decisions of my life."

Since the beginning of the year the charity, based in Northwick Road, has been raising funds to buy a new boiler.

When an expert was brought in to assess the boiler, a small amount of asbestos was discovered.

Hertfordshire County Council then asked for a full building survey to be undertaken.

It emerged that £78,000 would need to be spent on the building to renovate it, not including the extra money needed to make it fully accessible for disabled people.

Mr Hill said: "When we found this out, I arranged a meeting with Hertfordshire County Council to discuss what needed to be done.

"I was shocked when they turned around and said they would not be renewing the contract for our clients this September. If I hadn't have contacted them, we wouldn't have known."

Mr Hill said he was disappointed that nobody from the county council had contacted him, and it was left for him to approach them before he found out the funding for mental health services was being cut.

He said: "The health budget deficit in south west Herts is common knowledge, and it seems that the victim of the central Government's tightening of purse strings is mental health provision."

Three of the clients at ITO have been working there for more than 20 years.

They cannot find work in an unsupervised workplace, so will now be left with no job, and will lose the independence that earning their own money gave them.

Sue Tilbury has been working at ITO for nearly a year, as operations manager.

She said: "This has all happened so quickly and I have to say we are all absolutely gutted.

"We spoke to a psychiatrist, who said we should tell all our clients to finish this Friday so that the stress is not too much for them.

"People who work here have varying degrees of mental health problems, and for some it is like the end of their world they really don't know what they will do.

"The closure of ITO is a tragedy for our clients and heart-rending for the staff. It makes a mockery of 'Care in the Community'.

"While well intentioned authorities with deficit budgets regret thier ability to financially assist ITO and though undertaking our clients 'where they can', 43 vulnerable people with mental or learning disabilities will lose their stability, their confidence and in many cases their ability to reach their full potential in a society that claims to help the disabled."

Mitesh Patel, 26, from Watford, has been working at ITO for more than five years. He said: "Everyone is very upset that we have to leave, and it has come as a deep shock that we were only given a week to let the idea sink in.

"I am trying to be positive and I think life is too short to hold grudges, but we are all deeply upset."