CARERS in Bolton have been given a major cash injection by health and council bosses.

Four projects totalling more than £60,000 have secured money from the health and local authority joint consultative committee. The committee made up of representatives from both Wigan and Bolton Health Authority and Bolton Council makes cash available to projects which need financial support.

A total of 21 bids were submitted by groups and organisations across the borough.

Three projects focusing on the needs of carers and four additional schemes won support.

These schemes include £34,100 for a primary link worker in the primary healthcare sector-clinics and GP practices who will work for and on behalf of carers and liaise closely with GPs on behalf of families.

There is also cash for a carers' support worker at Thicketford House Community Care Centre and support worker for carers of the mentally ill who will work within the community.

This project which has secured £26,000 of funding will mirror the work of other, similar workers in other authority areas who provide support for people under pressure.

The JCC has also given £1,500 for a reprint of a mental health A-Z directory which lists vital telephone numbers and points people in the right direction of services in the borough and beyond.

A further £5,000 has been given towards printing a guidebook of local services for the deaf and hard of hearing and a further £2,700 has been invested in providing sign language courses for parents and carers of deaf and hard of hearing youngsters.

A total of £126,400 has been handed out by the committee leaving £64,300 in the pot for future allocations.

Jane Harrison of Bolton Carers Support Project called on the committee to make more cash available for a co-ordinator who will work to bring all the "carer" projects together.

But a meeting of the Bolton Joint Consultative Committee yesterday agreed to leave things as they were until a later date.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.