The Airborne Initiative, the scheme for young offenders which the SNP made a manifesto pledge to save, has been killed off, it was claimed last night.
Clive Fairweather, one of those behind the project, met Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill yesterday and was told the project was dead.
The SNP had promised in their election manifesto to save the scheme, but Mr Fairweather said: "It's dead. Kenny MacAskill was brutally honest and said they could not afford it."
He added: "Overall, the money is going to addiction services and the prison service. That is understandable but disappointing."
A spokesman for Mr MacAskill said last night: "The Justice Secretary today met with two trustees of the Airborne Initiative to discuss their revised proposal for Airborne Plus, and will be writing to them in the next few days.
"In its day, Airborne provided a radical approach to tackling one of the biggest problems in our society: how to offer often damaged and damaging young men a way out of crime.
"We are anxious to ensure that the spirit of Airborne is carried forward in the Scottish government's strategy to reduce reoffending."
He added: "We believe there was great work done in the Airborne Initiative and we want to continue to build on the good work that it has done. We are committed to the ethos that Airborne deployed."
The government has been accused of rowing back on several pre-election promises.
A Labour spokesman said last night: "The SNP said they were the saviour of the Airborne Initiative. But, like so many of their manifesto commitments, they are dropping them like hot bricks. First it was 1000 police officers, now Airborne. This is truly the government of broken pledges."
Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said: "Airborne works and possibly saves a number of young men from a life of crime punctuated by custodial sentences.
"I am very sorry that Kenny MacAskill does not have the imagination to recognise that something which succeeds should be encouraged rather than discarded."
In his first Holyrood speech since stepping down as Labour leader last August, Jack McConnell made an impassioned plea to the SNP government to support Project Scotland, a national volunteering scheme, formed two years ago.
He warned SNP ministers they were "either ignorant or politically vindictive" if they axe the projects.
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