A nursery for four-year-olds has been saved from the axe by a £71,000 national lottery grant.

Staff at Keighley Kiddicare's nursery education unit have won funding for another three years from the National Lotteries Charities Board.

The cash windfall will save three nursery nurse jobs at the Barlow Road-based organisation. They were due to be made redundant in March.

It is the second time the pioneering child-care organisation, founded 22 years ago, has won a lottery grant. Three years ago it was awarded £84,000 to set up the scheme, which involved converting a garage.

Bryan Walkeden, Kiddicare's coordinator, says he is delighted with the news of the windfall. It comes just two months after the group's plea for £20,000 from Bradford council community programme to fund the project for a year was turned down.

"We did not expect to be funded by the lottery board a second time but it is a very strong project - an excellent scheme - and they have shown faith in us," he says. "It is great news for the staff because they were facing losing their jobs in March. It would have also been a big setback for the parents who depend on the affordable care so they can work. If it closed their jobs were also at risk."

The service, which is aimed at single parents, provides all-day nursery care, particularly for four year-olds.

Kiddicare, which also gets a £136,000 community grant from Bradford council, provides all-day care for children from babies to four-year-olds and an after-school service for older children at three sites throughout the town.

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