THE Melksham Without Parish Council has doled out £14,300 in grants to worthy causes and organisations during a small ceremony at their annual parish council meeting.

Some 34 organisations received the grants with the majority of the money going towards basic running costs and upkeep.

However, youth group Young Melksham received £1,000 in funding principally for their shuttle bus service which takes children to the Canberra Youth Centre on club nights.

Trustee of Young Melksham, Jon Hubbard, said: “We are very grateful for it. The funding will go towards helping the organisation.

“We do not get anything for free. We do not get rent paid and we run three clubs, a counselling service providing support for young people with particular challenges amongst several other things.

“All that costs about £45,000 a year. We have some really amazing volunteers but that is a lot of money and we have to pay for it all.

“It is interesting the bus has not had significant take up in anyway shape or form. One of the things that we want to do is to find out why that is.”

Young Melksham offers a shuttle bus each Thursday, which follows a route through the town beginning at Leekes retail store at 5.45pm and is available for all those attending the youth centre.

Parish council chairman Richard Wood said: “The grants came around this time of year and we decided to hand them out at the annual parish meeting.

“It was a jolly good evening and we had a good turnout it was a very positive meeting indeed.

“We often give them out to people like the Scouts or Guides and to other good causes that are going on throughout the town.

“I have been chairman now for three years and we use to just send the cheques out in the post but doing it like this brings the whole meeting to life."