A host of groups in Keighley and surrounding villages are vying for grants from Bradford council's voluntary sector budget. Organisations across the district have together asked for three times more money than is likely to be available next year. Many are assured cash because they received large amounts of funding this year following the council's controversial grants shake-up.

But dozens of new applicants must meet tough funding criteria before getting some of the £1.2 million expected to be left for the 1999/2000 financial year.

Other groups which received grants of less than £20,000 this year have also had to make new applications.

A new system introduced at the end of last year forced groups to match their objectives to the council's own strategies for improving local people's lives.

Officers have already analysed each of the 176 new applications and scored them in order of eligibility.

New applications were made by drug and alcohol advice agency Project 6, Highfield People's Action Group, Haw-orth Community Association, Keighley Women's Centre, Community Nursery, Asian Youth Association, Asian Sports Association, youth theatre HYT, Bracken Bank Junior Club, Eastburn Over 60s Group and Airedale Arthritis Care.

Keighley groups applying for a new year's funding included the Bangladeshi Youth Organisation, Relate, Community Transport, Disabled People's Council, Domestic Violence Forum, Victim Supp-ort, Pre-school Learning Alliance, Russell Street and KVS Furniture Service.

Keighley groups requesting renewal of funding included housing advice agency Key House, lone parents' child-care service Kiddicare, Keighley Voluntary Serv-ices, Bracken Bank Community Assoc-iation, the Asian Women and Children's Centre, Citizens Advice Bureau, Local Enterprise Agency and Women's Aid.

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