A £1.7 million Lottery cash win for projects in the Bradford area has sparked celebrations across the city.

And to put the icing on the cake it gained the biggest grant of the Yorkshire and Humber Region, with £320,616 going to the Light of the World Gospel Church in West Bowling for community services.

Church Pastor Sybil Sangster was over the moon. She said: "A few weeks ago I was sat in this office and talking to the Lord.

"I was saying this place needs to be used and I thought I heard a noise like coins falling. I felt something was being released."

The money will pay for equipment and salaries to set up a nursery, which already has 22 children on the books.

It will also fund a new after-school club, elderly day care and training and education courses for local people.

"It will make a tremendous difference in West Bowling with new jobs and services.

"We will never stop trying to improve standards for the community," said Mrs Sangster.

Other groups who benefited included Bradford Women's Aid.

Treasurer Margaret Streets said: "We are really, really pleased and quite shocked.

"Because we have to keep a low profile, helping vulnerable women, we often lose out on things like this."

The money will enable the group to employ an outreach worker to help women outside the refuge, for the first time since it was set up 13 years ago.

The Rev Geoff Reid from C2M said: "We are delighted, obviously."

He said this was the critical grant, which would allow the regeneration scheme to go ahead.

As the vice-chairman of Bradford Nightstop he also added: "Housing and homelessness has been the flavour, it seems."

The National Lottery Charities Board's brief is to help meet the needs of those at greatest disadvantage in society.

Chairman of the region's advisory panel Martin Wainwright said: "The NCLB's aim is simple - to tackle poverty."

More than 800 groups in the Yorkshire and Humber region have been awarded a total of £61.7 million by the National Lottery Charities Board since October 1995.

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