IF you had gone down to a certain community centre yesterday there would have been a big surprise - nearly 200 tiny tots clutching teddy bears.

A teddy bears' picnic was organised in Middlesbrough to launch the start of the town's early years child car partnership which supports parents with child minding schemes, nursery places, after-school clubs and help working mothers apply for child care tax credit.

Eighty little ones from play groups across the Teesside borough joined their teddies in a picnic at the Grove Hill Community Centre yesterday morning, making way for 100 children from nurseries in the town, in the afternoon.

Organisers had originally planned on holding the picnic in the town's recently refurbished Victorian, Albert Park.

But due to the threat of rain they were forced to hold the picnic indoors.