GROUPS which strive to better our communities have had a boost of more than £47,000.

The Huddersfield Common Good Trust (HCGT) has helped everyone from after-school clubs to churches and football teams and carnival committees.

They’ve also given a one-off grant of £40,000 to the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice.

One of those to benefit has been Meltham’s Moor Fun Club, which has been given £2,500 towards converting the old caretakers bungalow into a haven for the school’s pre and after-school club.

Moor Fun is run by a management committee of parents and governors and opens from 7.30am until 6pm to help working parents.

Val Javin, chairman of the HCGT, said: “A lot of children rely on clubs like Moor Fun and we were happy to make a donation to them.

“With so many parents working they and their children need the flexibility of clubs like Moor Fun which provide early morning or after school activities.

“It’s an existing and very well attended thriving little group who are undertaking an ambitious project to move out of a prefab and to convert the caretaker’s bungalow into suitable base for the club.

“They will have been fundraising but we are one of the groups to help them out with £2,500.

“This group is typical of a lot of projects in lots of villages that depend on volunteers in the local community helping to benefit the wider community.

“The trust is about supporting people doing good things in the community.”

Other donations made by the HCGT at its latest meeting were £1,500 to Newsome FC for a new grass cutter, £500 to Lindley Pre-School for equipment, £625 to the Huddersfield Wood Turners for machinery, £1,500 to the Crosland Moor Community Learning for computers, £2,000 to Almondbury Methodist for stage equipment, £850 to the Clayton West Scouts for canoes, £1,500 to Birkby Rose Hill Cricket Club towards a new scoreboard and £750 to Yetton Together for Hanging Basket Brackets.

The total of £11,725 is on top of further donations of more than £36,000 made during the last financial year and the one-off £40,000 donation to the children’s hospice.

Val added: “Five times a year we give out funding from the trust which was founded in 1962 for the common good of society and to put money into helping social and community groups.

“Anyone can apply for grants from within the old Huddersfield borough council area.”

Eight trustees meet to decide which applications they can support. For more details visit www.hcgt.itbuddies.info