Now everyone can walk this way!

The Orchard Trust, a charity supporting people with learning disabilities has created a new fully accessible footpath around its rural woodland site in Stowfield, Lower Lydbrook.

The new footpaths, which are suitable for wheelchairs and people needing extra support to walk, mean that anyone visiting the site will be able to get around easily and safely to see the animals in the smallholding paddocks.

Grants awarded for the project include £21,500 from the Gloucestershire Environmental Trust (GET) and the Orchard Trust is very grateful to GET and the other funders for the support they have shown for this exciting project.

The Orchard Trusts grant co-ordinator Caroline Jones said "Without the generous support we have had from Gloucestershire Environmental Trust and the Landfill Communities Fund we would not have been able to complete this very important project. The project makes our beautiful, rural site accessible to all the adults who live with us as well as the disabled adults and children who visit the site.

"This is very important to us as a charity caring for people with special needs as it means we can include everyone in activities we do at the site, now and in the future."

The completion of the project opens the way for more developments on site. The Orchard Trust plan to make the Stowfield site into the place to go for a day out in Gloucestershire for people with a disability.

Facilities already on site include the new paths, a smallholding, a sensory room, a hydrotherapy pool and a floor trampoline; there is also a kitchen, toilets, a changing facility with full hoist access and a car park. Developments being planned include an outdoor classroom, an activity park with swings, roundabout, trampoline and slide, picnic benches and camping facilities, all fully accessible of course.

The project was completed by Kettle Civils, a Forest of Dean company who also donated the base for an outdoor classroom the Trust are hoping to build.

To visit the site to see what the Orchard Trust can offer, please get in touch with the site manager Phill Hucks at phill.hucks@orchard-trust.org.uk. To find out about helping with future projects, please contact Caroline by emailing at fundraising@orchard-trust.org.uk.

The Gloucestershire Environmental Trust provides grants from funds generated by the Landfill Communities Fund for the benefit of Gloucestershire, its people and its environment.