A PRE-SCHOOL which was preparing to close its doors for good has been saved and will now be bigger and better than before.

Romanby Pre-school, based near Northallerton, has 60 children on its register and a staff of 11, mostly part-timers.

But due to a lack of premises, it was preparing to close down in September and had even worked out redundancy pay for the staff.

However, following an application to the National Lottery's Community Fund it has now been awarded a grant of £107,000 and will have its very own premises, complete with the latest facilities, from January next year.

"We were all crying when we heard the news," said office administrator Linda Walter's yesterday.

"We really didn't know if we had a future until we knew our application had been successful."

For 35 years, the pre-school was based in St James's Church Hall in Romanby, but had to move when the hall was being sold.

Over the past year, the pre-school has used a classroom at the Sacred Heart RC school as well as the local Methodist church hall, but storage of equipment presented a problem and the accommodation was only temporary.

However, with the grant the future of the school has been assured and there are firm plans to expand services, with both a before and after-school club for four to 11-year-olds.

The New Opportunities Fund awarded the operation a further £25,000 for equipment, the preschool itself has raised £10,000 and further grants have been forthcoming from Lloyds TSB and the Halifax.

The chair of the Community Fund's regional awards committee, Elaine Appelbee, said: "We are pleased to be able to add funding to that given by other partners to ensure that the young children of Romanby get off to a good start with their education."

The school is one of 20 groups throughout Yorkshire and the Humber to receive cash in the latest round of awards from the Community Fund.

In total, £3,045,588 has been awarded to voluntary and community groups.