TIME is running out for groups to apply for grant aid for projects across the Yorkshire Dales.

Clapham-based charity Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) is offering grants through the Roger Stott Community Grants programme of between £250 and £1,500, to support small voluntary organisations and community groups in and around the Dales that want to continue or expand their activities to benefit local people.

Supported by the People’s Postcode Lottery, this funding can be used to cover revenue expenses, such as staff costs, rent or training, or for capital investment in assets such as furniture, computers or catering equipment, to name just a few.

Recent successful applications have included a playpark shelter in Clapham and children’s music workshops.

There are also three kinds of grants available for projects in the Ingleborough area – Heritage Grants of £200 to £5,000 are for community-led projects that restore, celebrate or increase understanding of the area’s natural or historical features; Dry Stone Walling Grants of up to £10,000 are available for landowners and tenants who want to restore dry stone walls; and Woodland Grants of all sizes are available for landowners who want to restore native broadleaf woodlands.

These Ingleborough grants are part of Stories in Stone, a four-year programme of community and heritage projects developed by the Ingleborough Dales Landscape Partnership, which is led by YDMT and mainly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund thanks to National Lottery players.

Projects supported by previous rounds of Stories in Stone grants include the production of a series of walk leaflets to help visitors understand the archaeological and historical features on Ingleborough, a community project to digitise and transcribe 16th century wills relating to the Clapham parish, dry stone wall restoration near Austwick, Langcliffe and Chapel-le-Dale, and the creation of a new native woodland near Ribblehead.

Guidance and application forms can be downloaded from ydmt.org/whatwedo or can be obtained by contacting YDMT via

info@ydmt.org or by calling 015242 51002.

The deadline for Roger Stott Community Grants is November 4, and the deadline for all Stories in Stone applications is 10am on November 15.