NEARLY £6,000 has been given to charities and groups in Dorset by leading regional news publishers Newsquest Media Group.

Over the last 10 years alone, Newsquest, which publishes the Daily Echo, has given more than £3 million to help charitable community causes all over the country.

The trustees who make the grants agonised for days to make difficult choices from a stack of deserving applications, but narrowed the list down to those which they thought would deliver the most worthwhile practical benefits to communities served by Newsquest’s local news brands.

The annual round of donations saw grants totalling nearly £300,000 made to charities this year.

In Dorset, Ashley’s Birthday Bank and the 20th Christchurch (Somerford) Scout Group both benefitted from grants to carry out various projects.

Christchurch-based Ashley’s Birthday Bank, which supports underprivileged children and families in Dorset, has been given £3,900.

The charity will use the funds to purchase microwaves and food for families affected by domestic violence and living in temporary accommodation.

And £1,695 was donated to the 20th Christchurch (Somerford) Scout Group so they could purchase a marquee and tables.

Chairman of the trustees, Simon Westrop, congratulated charities across the UK which have benefitted from grants.

He said: “It was good to see Wales and Scotland back on track after a couple of lean years. And we were glad to be able to give to some exciting projects making people’s lives better in all sorts of ways – like the Oxford Playhouse plan to wrap up theatre and take it out to isolated and disadvantaged communities in Oxfordshire in a tent donated by Newsquest.

“Year on year, we are seeing better applications with more focused attention on different ways of helping - caring for the present but also building for the future.

“If your application did not succeed this time, please don’t be discouraged, but look at the applications that have won grants and think how you can come up with even better ideas next year,” he added.

The two biggest awards of £15,000 each went to two charities founded in the 19th century by a group of benefactors including novelist Charles Dickens. They are now known as the Journalists’ Charity and Newstraid, both helping people who have worked in the newspaper industry but have fallen on hard times. Another grant went to the Rory Peck Trust which looks after the interests and welfare of freelance journalists.

The Gannett Foundation UK, which makes the grants, retains a modest reserve to cater for urgent applications until the next round of awards in November 2017. Applications can be made through any local Newsquest Media Group editor.