Age Concern Wiltshire is to axe a gardening service for older people after it failed to secure funding to keep it going.

The charity set up the paid gardening service three years ago and had funding from Defra for two years.

When this ended the charity secured a small grant from the Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon and raised the fees to customers but now there is no money to run the service and it will end this month.

Age Concern Wiltshire has run a voluntary gardening scheme for eight years and this will continue. There are six volunteer gardeners and the charity would be pleased to hear from other would be volunteers.

Louise Elkington, chairman of trustees at Age Concern Wiltshire, said they had been unsuccessful in securing more grant funding and the trustees did not want to use the charity’s funds on a paid service.

She said: “We are extremely disappointed that having provided such a superb service for nearly three years we have now had to take this very difficult decision.”

Over the three years the service has been used by more than 400 people and has employed 35 part-time gardeners.

Liddy Davidson, director of Age Concern Wiltshire, said the charity had charged customers a lower rate than commercial gardeners and the aim was to have made the service sustainable over five years.

“We charge £14 an hour to customers. We have delivered over 5,000 hours of gardening but we know that is the tip of the iceberg, there are a lot more people who would like to have the service,” she said.

One customer is Shirley Zabeau and her husband Ronald of Church Walk, Melksham.

Mrs Zabeau, 77, said: “The service has been a godsend. I just don’t know what we will do without it.”

Gary Bull, of Chippenham, is one of the gardeners and he said: “It’s a sad thing that it is coming to an end. As well as the gardening I think the older people look forward to us going to their homes for someone to talk to.

The charity’s Big 60 Appeal is raising money to fund its free services, including the gardening scheme. The appeal is aiming to raise £60,000 this year, the 60th anniversary of Age Concern Wiltshire.