Grant aids charity’s drive to teach woodworking skills

The Northcliffe Environmental Enterprise Team (NEET) wants to install a new cabin at its headquarters at Northcliffe Nurseries, in Shipley, so that vocational courses can be offered in woodwork, carpentry and construction.

The charity promotes the education and welfare of people with learning disabilities, by offering training and work experience in horticulture and related activities.

Activities take place both at the allotment site where they are based, and on placements in the community.

Currently anyone wishing to undertake woodwork activities is forced to do so out in the open air for large parts of the year while poly-tunnels at its allotment site are full of plants.

NEET director Ian Sutcliffe said: “This cabin will make such a difference to us. The service we offer is tailored around each individual who comes to us, so some people like to do gardening, some people grow vegetables, and some people do woodwork.

“We have got woodwork benches but the group always end up doing the work outside because within a few weeks the poly-tunnels are just fall of plants.”

The new cabin will be fully kitted out with new tools and workbenches for the NEET’s services users to make full use of. It will also be given anti-vandal security measures to reduce the risk of vandalism when not in use.