CHARITIES and community groups are celebrating a £70,000 boost to their coffers.

The money, distributed as part of the Government’s Grassroots Grants programme, has gone to 18 voluntary groups and local organisations to help them meet essential running costs or fund much-needed improvements to their facilities.

Priory Park Associated Bowling Club, in Southend, received £5,000 for new car park floodlights to allay members’ safety fears.

Chairman Ray Matthews said: “Although we are allowed to use the club until 10pm, we have never done it because of the darkness.

“Members are understandably wary of going to their cars in the darkness. These lights will be such a help, and we are so grateful for the money.”

Basildon and District Stroke Club was also given £5,000 to subsidise the cost of the trips which the club organises for stroke victims and their carers. Chairwoman Muriel Willis said: “We have had to pay for everything ourselves, so this money will be a big help.

“When we first started we had just a few hundred pounds from the council. This is a real step forward.”

Other projects to win funding were Basildon Hospital radio, which got £5,000 for new quipment and Hullbridge Senior Citizens’ Welfare Council, which was awarded £3,475 for repairs to its building.

St Saviour’s Housing Association, in Southend, was given £5,000 towards the salary of a part-time project co-ordinator, supporting young men over 18 in times of crisis. The grants scheme, operated by Essex Community Foundation, is primarily funded through donations from individuals and businesses.

The Government then contributes further funding equivalent to 50 per cent of the amount raised locally.

The foundation needs to raise £3.3million through donations to reach its target of a £5million cash pot for Essex community groups.

Laura Warren, chief executive of the foundation, said: “We are asking local people, individually or through their companies, to get behind this challenge with donations of all sizes, otherwise we risk losing money the Government has set aside for Essex.”

Ms Warren also appealed for community groups to contact the foundation if they need funding. Groups can apply for grants of up to £5,000 until March 2011.

To qualify, groups must have a gross annual income of less than £20,000 and have been active in their community for at least 12 months.