Wheelchair youngsters learn the ropes

accessible to people with sensory, learning or physical disabilities. It already provides disability climbing, canoeing, archery and much more.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is the world’s leading achievement award for young people and over 6,000 young people in Kirklees are taking part. Eager participants at the launch of the Accessible Low Ropes Course in Little Deer Wood, Mirfield, run by the Kirklees Duke of Edinburgh Trust

“The course has been three years in the making,” said Denise.

“Raising the money wasn’t the hard part, it was finding an organisation that would build it to fit in with its natural surroundings in the woodland.”

The course was designed by Gloucestershire-based Motiva

Kieran Johnson crossing the beam swing section and, inset front, Denise Bedford (Kirklees Duke of Edinburgh award manager) and Mary Hinde; back, Deputy Lieutenant Major Stan Hardy, Steve Dunn (chairman Kirklees DofE award), Anthony Llewelyn (assistant provincial Grand Master of the Free Masons West Yorkshire) and Anya Philip of Cummins Adventure Construction.

It was funded by West Riding Freemasons and Huddersfield-based Cummins Turbo Technologies.

The Yorkshire Regional Spinal Injuries Centre’s Stepping Stones Appeal also funded the course as medical staff will use it to treat patients whose spines were injured in warzones.

Deputy Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire Major Stan Hardy launched the new attraction.

The closest alternatives for people with disabilities are believed to be at Pugneys Country Park in Wakefield or a high ropes course at the Calvert Trust in the Lake District.