A SERVICE that has “given purpose” to hundreds of people and reduced social isolation among Bury’s older generation will be terminated.

Ambition for Ageing Bury was part of a £10.2million Lottery funded programme aimed at creating age friendly places.

The group, which is run by Groundwork, to support over 50s across the borough, will be stopped in March.

Its particular focus has been to “improve lives” in Radcliffe North, Moorside and St Mary’s.

Julie Bentley was the project coordinator until October 2019 but has now joined the newly established Beacon Service, which will develop an activities calendar to cover the entire borough from this month.

The Beacon Service — a social prescribing service — is part of Bury Voluntary, Community & Faith Alliance.

A spokeswoman for Groundwork said: "Groundwork has been delivering the Ambition for Ageing programme in Bury for the past five years and celebrated the success of the programme at a partnership celebration held at the Elizabethan Suite in mid-December.

"The primary aim of the programme was to test and learn different approaches to making local communities more age friendly by making more small investments in the locality with the intention of empowering and developing local community groups and organisations to play a greater role in making communities more resilient and active.

"The programme in terms of making investments was always due to end in March 2020 and there are a number of legacies that continue beyond the lifetime of the funding. Many of the investments have provided resources and training that will enable groups to continue to play a significant role in the community.

"Groundwork is currently working with the community leads and Bury Council to ensure that the we harness the learning and community expertise to support the development of Bury’s ageing well strategy moving forward. In addition, Groundwork is working with partners to develop a funding bid to Big Lottery to build on some of the themes of AFA."

At the celebration event in December Ambition for Ageing Bury launched a legacy booklet, Our Story, which was produced by the community, and sets out areas of good practice and improvement from the project.

The Ambition for Ageing group in Bury has carried out numerous pieces of work within the community, impacting hundreds of people.

In 2017/18 the team invested £137,941 in project ideas created by residents.

One example of its work saw the project identify a group of retired men in Radcliffe North, who were “looking for the structure, sense of purpose and connection that working life can provide.”

Around the same time, Groundwork identified that Radcliffe Cricket Club required regular maintenance in preparation for cricket matches and social events.

‘Grumpy Old Bees’ was formed and the group set to work cutting the grass and improving the overall appearance of the club grounds.

The group now undertakes voluntary maintenance three to five times a week. Ambition for Ageing helped the team purchase new equipment to carry out tasks.

Other initiatives include the launch of the Talk to Me Café, installing planters in the Abbey Close area of Radcliffe, providing IT equipment for the Friendly Faces group in Radcliffe North, helping to set up an activity programme for a group of Holocaust survivors who are residents at The Fed to increase their social activities, and securing disability benches for outside the Age UK centre, to name a few.