A MULTI-PURPOSE pitch costing an estimated £610,000 at Bedale High School is among 31 sports and recreation projects for youngsters nominated for Government cash help by North Yorkshire County Council.

The project, which would involve building the pitch on three of the tennis courts at the school in Firby Road, is the second most expensive in the list submitted to the Department for Education new opportunities fund.

The county council has made a bid for £3.4m from the fund to help with countywide school schemes including new halls, improvements to existing halls, storage and changing rooms, multi-use areas, artificial pitches, playgrounds, natural grass pitches, specialist areas and outdoor adventure activities.

The county council originally received 133 proposals which would have cost a total of more than £13m to implement. Decisions were then taken about which schemes to submit for Government help, based on factors including the level of community involvement, whether the schemes would benefit a cluster of schools and how the project could be sustained after initial funding.

County Coun Carl Les, executive member for education, said: "We are very hopeful that all these schemes will get the go-ahead from the new opportunities fund, but there is no absolute guarantee.

"We believe this is a realistic bid and represents some exciting projects right across the county. If they all come to fruition it will represent a terrific step forward for sports and recreation across North Yorkshire.

"We are disappointed that we cannot process all the schemes. We will be talking to those schemes left out of the submission to see what options might be available to them to develop their own particular projects."

He said figures for schemes included in the submission were provisional and would need detailed discussion locally once awards had been announced.

Other local submissions include a new hall at Barton CE Primary School (£267,500); hall extensions and storage at Hawes Community Primary School (£40,500) and Topcliffe CE Primary (£52,000); multi-use areas at Middleton Tyas CE Primary (£135,000) and Wensleydale School, Leyburn (£64,500); playgrounds at Reeth Community Primary School (£26,000) and Hinderwell Community Primary (£39,500); and a specialist area at Lady Lumley's School, Pickering (£145,000).