Sixty five voluntary groups have lost their appeal for community grants after the final round results were announced.

Only 21 organisations were successful in their bid to secure part of the £200,000 pot. And now many of the unsuccessful organisations face closure following the City Hall announcement yesterday.

There were celebrations for staff at Bradford City Farm, which was saved by a £14,227 grant.

Farm manager Debbie Mountain said: "If we hadn't have got it, it would have been a slow wind down from January to March when we would have shut.

"It would have been a crying shame."

The farm has played host to 120 educational school visits this year and currently has 12 people with special needs working there.

"It's brilliant that we have got it. We have had major crisis this year but we have had an awful lot of support from the community and we would like to thank everyone."

But Pauline Nugent, of the Bradford and District Coalition of Disabled People, said members were devastated to discover their £30,000 request had been turned down.

The group, run by disabled people, exists to promote equality - seeing the outside world as the problem rather than disabled people.

"We are sitting here now looking at our finances and we are looking at folding at the end of March.

"The council's decision does not reflect their stated policy of promoting equality for disabled people.

"The applications process was incredibly complicated. It was a joke."

The controversial points system for awarding grants was introduced for the first time last year in a bid to judge all the groups "on a level playing field."

Bradford has the second largest voluntary budget in the country.

Susan Ward, from the Ravenscliffe Community Association, which has now twice won grants on appeal, said the system was just inflexible box ticking.

"If you went to the doctor and he asked you set questions, you could answer them all but if you couldn't say what was wrong with you, he would never get to the bottom of it - and this is the same."

She said the annual uncertainty made ongoing strategies impossible.

Bary Malik, of the Asian Disability Network, said his group would now close and he would be out of a job as of March.

"I feel for the Asian disabled people in the city because there is no single ongoing project for them and it is accepted everywhere that they have additional needs."

The Pakistan Community Centre was rejected because it had too many savings in the bank already which had been raised to match fund a possible lottery bid.

Director Rashid Awan said: "These funds were for the betterment of the community and we have been penalised for that."

He said the points system required sectors of the community to fight against each other.

Executive Secretary of the Voluntary Sector Forum Dave Rogers said he was keen to work with the council to improve the process.

The winners

Computing Bradford £22,821; Bingley Voluntary Action £19,165; Keighley Community Transport £16,017; Girlington Advice Centre £14,874; Ravenscliffe Community Association £11,719; Woodside Community Association £19,585; Bangladeshi Community Association £11,662; Keighley Disabled Peoples Council £14,902; Grange Interlink £6,724; Relate Keighley and Craven £6,447; Bradford City Farm £14,227; Frontline Initiative £30,450; Federation of Afro-Caribbean Elderly £1,611; Muslim Association of Bradford £11,753; Saathi Centre £10,000; Keighley PLA £13,296; Buttershaw CFC £10,000 (Contact Centre only); Legrams Lane Under Five's and Women's Centre £16,079; Hutson Street Project £5,951 (First Quarter only at this stage); Manningham Housing Association £30,000; Bradford Alliance on Community Care £40,000.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.