A GROUP which has been promoting healthy eating will close next week after losing NHS funding.

The Oxford Healthy Living Partnership will close on Thursday, June 30 after nine years.

One of its key achievements was its help in setting up cafes such as Eatwells Community Cafe in Barton and the Broom Tree cafe in Cowley.

These will stay open.

But it is now feared the support offered by the partnership will be lost for other vital projects to promote healthy eating.

Health chiefs said the partnership was not “cost effective”, but its managers said they were concerned efforts to encourage healthy eating have been hit.

Tanya Prescott, co-ordinator at the Blackbird Leys group, said: “The feedback we are getting from a lot of community groups is ‘who is going to fill this gap?’.

“At the moment, no one seems interested.”

She said: “We’ve done lots of fantastic work in the community, a whole range of food-related work and it’s been very popular on the estates.

“We might be known for our fruit kebabs and smoothies, but we’ve done a lot more than that.”

The cafes have a “tremendous effect” on workers’ confidence, she said, and helped them gain catering qualifications to get more work.

Mrs Prescott said: “We also offered fantastic opportunities for volunteers.”

Lynn Grandi, the development manager for the Barton and Cowley cafes, said: “They helped loads in the setting up of the cafes.

“They were so supportive and completely instrumental in making sure everything was done.

“They helped set up courses for people with learning disabilities to go through the basics of health and food hygiene.

“And they were just a phone call away at any time, if you needed advice about something.”

She said of the partnership: “When I heard they were closing, I just thought there’s going to be such a massive gap, they’ve helped so many people.

“They were the difference between something being achievable or not because you had that support.”

A review by NHS Oxfordshire, which decides where NHS cash is spent, said the partnership was not cost effective.

But Jackie Wilderspin, assistant director of public health for NHS Oxfordshire, said the partnership had been successful.

She said: “The legacy is shown by several community cafes serving a variety of healthy food in the local community and an increase in confidence and awareness in everyone who attended cooking skills courses.”