A POPLULAR gardening project for disabled people across Basingstoke is set to close this month after Hampshire County Council ended its contract.

The Shaw Trust has operated in Basingstoke since 1998 and its horticulture project offers disabled clients an opportunity to develop skills in ground maintenance and woodwork.

The project, which is based in Elizabeth Road, South Ham, provides work experience, training and volunteering opportunities to people contending with a host of barriers to employment, including mental health difficulties, and they also run daily on-site activities in their project garden, offering an accredited certificate in horticultural skills.

But the project is set to close on June 26 after its contract was not renewed by Hampshire County Council.

Austin Hardie, Shaw Trust director of charitable activity and supply chain, said: “Shaw Trust is sorry to announce that our horticultural project in Basingstoke will close in June. We have enjoyed a strong relationship with the local community and a range of businesses over the years so it is a difficult decision to make. The project has lost its main source of income from the local authority and demand for our services in the community is not what it used to be.

“The closure will be managed with the greatest of care and all reasonable support will be offered to those affected by the decision. We are sensitive to the needs of our service users and understand the impact this decision will have on the community.”

In 2011, the project was awarded a two-year contract worth £84,000. In 2013 the Shaw Trust received its last funding from the county council, a one-year contract worth £21,000.

Volunteers and service users have hit out at the decision to close the project.

Catherine Daykin, whose 38-year-old son Paul attends the project every Thursday and Friday, told The Gazette that he was “devastated”.

He has severe learning difficulties which means he cannot read or write.

She said: “Paul has been going for over 15 years and he is absolutely gutted – he just doesn’t understand it. It is another two days that I have got to try and fill for him because he likes to keep busy.

“It has given him a lot of confidence and I have been able to teach him the bus route so he can go on his own but now this has been taken away from him.”

Another person angry at the closure is Wendy Maybury, whose son Christopher, 30, attends the project.

She added: “It is disgusting. It is such a good scheme and it is a lovely place. It has been a lifesaver and all of the other parents think the same thing.”

Councillor Liz Fairhurst, the county council’s executive member for adult social care, said: “In 2010 we gave the Shaw Trust very early notice that we would not be able to continue to extend their contract on a year-by-year basis. This was partly due to procurement rule changes, and partly due to a more general move towards a system of providing clients with direct payments. This allows them to choose the individual support services they need and pay for them directly themselves.

“All our clients, either independently or with the support of their social worker, can contact their nearest wellbeing team who will help them to find opportunities to volunteer with a variety of local projects.

“The county council continues to support a very wide variety of community and voluntary organisations via its grant programmes, but is not aware that the Shaw Trust has applied for any of the potential grants available.”