THE Hextol Foundation is the latest local charity to benefit from a grant from Hexham Town Council.

The charity provides working opportunities for people with learning disabilities and mental health needs through its not-for-profit businesses, including the popular Hextol Tans vegetarian café on St Mary’s Chare.

Hextol closed its services at the beginning of the current lockdown but is now in the process of reopening its gardening, warehouse and packing businesses.

Hextol’s chief executive Bruce Howorth said: “We are very grateful to Hexham Town Council for this grant which will help us as we reopen our services.

"We know the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on disabled people and has increased the numbers suffering mental health issues so we are very keen to reopen for the benefit of the people we support.

"Although we won’t be able to reopen the Tans until May, at the earliest, we are planning to reopen most of our other services in the next few weeks with full Covid-19 precautions in place.”