RYEDALE Voluntary Action Group (RVA) is preparing to merge with another charity to enable it to continue its work as concerns about cuts to funding put it at risk.

With budget cuts to local organisations looking likely to continue, members of the RVA board of trustees have agreed to join forces with Scarborough-based charity Seachange Community Trust to enable them to continue providing support for community groups and other organisations.

RVA chairman David Wright reassured people in Ryedale that despite the merger, RVA will still have a presence in the district and that the move is a positive change for the group.

“The merger will ensure we can continue to keep giving our members the service we have kept up over the years,” he said.

“We want to continue to provide services to the quantity and quality we have always done, but we also want to do more than that as well.”

Mr Wright said that the merger of the charities, which is expected to be finalised by April 2014 and will create the new super-charity Coast and Vale Community Action, will enable RVA to improve its work and reach out to more people with the saving, and joining, of funds.

He said: “There are people and organisations hard to reach in isolated areas who may not know who to go to for help or advice and through this move hopefully we can help these people in the future. We hope to be able to help these people who haven’t been given the service they really deserve.”

RVA is also hoping to benefit from Seachange’s social media expertise.

The main offices for Coast and Vale Community Action will be in Scarborough, in a centre called The Street, but RVA will keep a base in Ryedale and Ryedale District Council has offered the group space in Stanley Harrison House, Norton.

Mr Wright said: “We have been offered space in Stanley Harrison House and it would need tweaking to meet our needs before we move in, but we will very much still have a presence in Ryedale.”