'Gardening is not exercise' group told; Stunned reaction as grant is turned down

Byline: SAM CASEY

DISAPPOINTED: Stephen Knight, right, with vice-chairman Mike Gates, left, and representatives of the Rainbow and Brownie groups (AC201210Eneth)A council spokeswoman said competition for the grants was "intense". Eighty-five organisations applied for a total of pounds 650,000 from a pot of only pounds 180,000. Only 21 were successful.Applicants had to prove their project fulfilled certain criteria including, among other things, improving education and tackling childhood obesity. But when TRA chairman Stephen Knight contacted the council to find out why they had been unsuccessful, he was shocked by the response.COMMUNITY groups were left stunned after being told their grant request for a gardening project had been turned down - because gardening "isn' t exercise.""Of course gardening is a physical activity. I know of sheltered housing schemes and care homes that have introduced gardening for that very reason." Mr Knight said the decision had left a lot of people disappointed, but they were looking at alternative methods of funding.Funding would have come from the council's reducing inequalities grant scheme.The plan was to put it in the grounds of Netherton Infant and Nursery School for the benefit of schoolchildren as well as local community groups.She said theTRAwas advised to apply for funding from a grant scheme called Eat Well for Life.He said: "I had a letter saying that the application didn't meet the criteria and when I rang up to find outwhy, Iwas told gardening isn't exercise.CAPTION(S):"As it was, the pressure of competition meant that the panel decided that other projects made more of a contribution to health than this one."Netherton Tenants' and Residents' Association (TRA) had applied for pounds 4,000 from Kirklees Council to install a 40ft poly-tunnel for plants, to build raised flower beds and buy specialist tools for children.The spokeswoman added: "The Netherton project was considered by a panel of experts including NHS Kirklees and would have been funded had the money been available.The spokeswoman added: "The panel's decisions were not easy to make and they acknowledged that a lot of good projects were not going to get funding because there simply wasn't enough money to go round all those who applied and met the criteria."

DISAPPOINTED: Stephen Knight, right, with vice-chairman Mike Gates, left, and representatives of the Rainbow and Brownie groups (AC201210Eneth)