Thirteen groups have been chosen to share £3,000 in this year's Evening Advertiser Community Awards scheme, run in partnership with British Gas.

The grants range from around £87 for a play parachute for Lower Shaw Farm Children's Project to £459 for a special shower and toilet equipment for the Friends of Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool.

Now each group is looking forward to next year, when most will be furnished with their much-needed new equipment.

Charities, community groups and good causes from around Swindon were invited to submit applications for the grants earlier this year.

The only restrictions were that the money was not to be used for animal, medical or sporting causes and the grant would have to be sufficient to enable the total completion of a project.

Donna Evans, spokeswoman for British Gas, said the scheme had prompted a tremendous response, which meant that many applications were unfortunately unsuccessful.

"The selection of the successful grants was a joint effort between British Gas and the Evening Advertiser," she said.

"We tried to get a good spread geographically and wanted to select a variety of different groups.

"There were some difficult decisions to make and we would say to those who weren't successful not to get too downhearted."