GRANTS are now available for small businesses via the South Wiltshire Economic Partnership.

The scheme, from which several firms have already benefited, is for the purchase of equipment, rent of premises or employment of staff.

All types of small business with fewer than ten employees are eligible for the grants, which are for a maximum of £500 and are a Salisbury District Council initiative.

Barbara Heil of Maple Hill Physiotherapy Clinic in Winterslow says she was delighted to receive a grant.

"My new business venture is progressing well and the machine I purchased has already become a great asset to the clinic," she said.

o A limited amount of additional finance has been made available by Great Western Enter-prises for new small businesses in the Rural Priority Area west of Wilton.

4: Red carpet laid out for Cherries

THE Wilton Carpet Factory has won another contract to kit out a football stadium.

This time the company has supplied 1,500 square metres of carpet for the Cherries' new stadium in Bourne-mouth.

The contract follows hard on the heels of the 6,000 square metres in four designs it wove for Southampton Football Club's new Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium.

Managing director Peter Le Count said the main contractor at Southampton was so pleased with the carpets, it came back when it won the Bournemouth contract.

"We used one of our stock designs and modified it to fit their colour red," said Mr Le Count.

"Football stadiums are a growing business and many are used for corporate entertaining.

"Our main business is the hospitality and leisure field, so it was a nice job to get."