CALLS will be made this week for planned funding cuts to York community centres to be scrapped.

The centres in Foxwood and Chapelfields have said they face closure if they lose their City of York Council grants, with the authority planning to remove £140,000 of support in 2014/15 following a £40,000 cut this year.

The Liberal Democrats said Oaken Grove Community Centre was also affected by the reductions.

Its leader, Coun Keith Aspden, will use Thursday night’s full council meeting to press the ruling Labour group to drop next year’s grant reductions and address the concerns of the centres.

Foxwood Community Centre’s chairman, Stephen Redman, has said it faces an annual £25,000 shortfall. Coun Aspden said community centres were the heart of their communities and said the council should do all it could to support them.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, Labour councillors will challenge the Liberal Democrats over Government plans to sell off student loans to private debt firms.

A motion by councillors Neil Barnes and David Levene, who represent the student-heavy Hull Road and Heslington wards respectively, will call for City of York Council to seek assurances from ministers that the proposals would not lead to interest rates being hiked.

Coun Barnes said he wanted to see what the Liberal Democrat group’s stance would be after its national party supported the introduction of tuition fees.