A GRANT of £148,180 has been awarded to an east Cleveland village to create a neighbourhood nursery.

The money has been given to Skelton Out-of-School Club and the nursery will be built on the Skelton Junior School site.

The money has been provided by the New Opportunities Fund, which said it was impressed by services already provided by The Happy Hut Out-of-School Club.

The nursery will provide 34 places for youngsters.

Of these places, ten will be for three and four-year-olds, 12 will be for 18-month-old to three-year-olds and ten places will be for babies aged up to 18 months.

Redcar and Cleveland Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership has co-ordinated the neighbourhood nursery initiative in the borough and has brought together several partners in this project. These include Skelton Junior School, the Happy Hut Out of School Club and Skelton Youth Inclusion Single Regeneration Budget Programme, which have supported the project with funding from regional development agency One NorthEast.

The next stage will be to contact builders to begin the work.

Catherine Hatch, assistant director of lifelong learning said: "Thanks to a great deal of hard work and enthusiasm by the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership, in genuine partnership with the community, I am delighted by the success of this project and everyone involved is to be congratulated.