Generous support has flooded in for a HIV charity in St Albans to stop them closing their doors.
 

Funding was withdrawn from The Crescent in Russell Avenue, St Albans, by Hertfordshire County Council last June and volunteers have so far continued to run the charity.
 

The Crescent’s funding contract has been moved over to HertsAid, another HIV charity operating in Watford and Ware.
 

It was feared the doors would have to be closed because volunteers could no longer afford to pay the bills and work for free.
 

However generous offerings of support and money from councillors and members of the community has meant The Crescent will fight on another day and is able to continue running on the funds for now.
 

Councillor Aislinn Lee and Councillor Chris White have donated £1,000 of their locality budget to the charity and a couple from Redbourn has recently donated £2,000 in good faith to keep the charity open.  
 

Councillor Lee, Liberal Democrat representative for Park Street, said: “The Crescent is an absolutely invaluable service in our community.
 

“Their work is critical to vulnerable people and members in and just outside of our community who benefit from these essential local services.
 

“I feel so privileged and it is a great honour to be able to give money towards helping the Crescent continue to run and hopefully keeping its doors open for longer.
 

“I will continue to try and help in any way that I can.”
 

Iain Murtagh, head of operations, who has used most of his savings to keep the charity going, said he is really pleased and appreciates the generous offers of support.
 

Mr Murtagh said: “This support has given us the chance to carry on paying the bills.
“We don’t have the money to pay the volunteers here that are working for free, however this money is keeping us going for much longer than first thought.
“We are not done yet.”
 

The news comes after the deselection of Councillor Sally Newton, from the conservative party who previously stood as health scrutiny chairman.
 

Volunteers from the Crescent had previously expressed their concerns over Sally Newton being the chair of the Herts Aid charity, where funding had been moved over to.