Parents and children in Keighley will soon be able to grow closer together by planting fruit and vegetables.

The Children's University in Bradford is spending more than £5,000 across five Keighley community areas on gardens and allotments to encourage families to bond and learn about the environment at the same time.

The university won a £2,590 grant from Northern Green Networks - an environmental awards scheme - to spend on out-of school education, and the sum was match-funded by Keighley Area Committee.

At Low Fold Children's and Family Centre, the Children's University plans to create allotment patches for children to grow plants and vegetables.

Victoria Foxley-Sayles, from the Children's University, said: "We are going to divide the area into sections and plots so that each family can do what it wants with it.

"They can all take ownership of it and come in when they want and watch it grow.

"We will find out how many people are interested before we measure the plots out. There is already an interest at Low Fold because it has a growing club."

The other Keighley areas which will benefit from the funding are Dalton Lane, the Bangladeshi Community Association, the Asian Women's Association, in Lawkholme, and Whinfield Community Centre, in Braithwaite.

"It will be up to those areas how they spend the money but it will involve the environment and that sort of thing," said Ms Foxley-Sayles.

A spokesman for Northern Green Networks - operated by Northern Gas Networks, which owns the gas pipeline network across the north of England - said the Children's University was one of 15 winners across the whole of the north.

He said: "The scheme was launched in 2007, with local groups and organisations being invited to bid for a maximum individual award of £5,000 from a total budget of £50,000. The Children's University application was very good." Theresa Deighton-Power, extended services manager at Low Fold Children's and Family Centre, said the garden should also encourage families to eat healthily. She said: "It is wonderful. It is going to help us involve parents to work with children at the allotments."