A MAJOR £1.3m slice of Government funding has been allocated to North Yorkshire to create a series of exciting new play areas for children.

Eighteen projects across the county are to share the funds as part of the Playbuilder scheme run by the Department of Children, Schools and Families.

Play England is leading the initiative for the Government and projects in several towns will benefit from the money.

It will be used to develop facilities for youngsters aged from eight to 13-years and the grants will be split between £16,000 and £49,000.

The sites chosen include play areas in Northallerton, Catterick village, Ingleby Arncliffe, Aiskew, near to Bedale, and Masham.

Amongst them are the Northallerton Applegarth scheme which gets £49,000, the Kingfisher Play Park, Aiskew, gets £37,000 and Ingleby Arncliffe £25,000.

Work is set to start on the first 12 sites transforming tired and outdated facilities in some cases and creating new play areas in others.

The aid comes as Play England singles out North Yorkshire as a beacon of good practise in that it asks youngsters and families to help design play areas.

It means that in North Yorkshire there will be 30 new, or substantially refurbished play areas, which have benefited from the Playbuilder scheme.

Caroline Patmore, North Yorkshire’s executive member for children’s services, said: "We hope that generations of children to come will benefit greatly from what we have started here.

"North Yorkshire is a large and varied county and we have a great opportunity here to create very different play spaces that reflect the unique qualities of the environment."

Under the national Playbuilder initiative the Government plans to create 3,500 adventurous play spaces across the country by 2012.

In Hambleton four play areas will share £131,000 of cash from the Playbuilder scheme which is in its last year in North Yorkshire.

All of the projects will also get funding from Hambleton District Council as part of the Hambleton Play Partnership.

Northallerton Town Council is involved in a £100,000 project to improve play provision on the Applegarth.

Town councillor John Coulson said the £49,000 grant was a major boost which would be backed by money from the town council too.

He said: "It’s good news there’s no doubt about it but the scheme will have to be discussed with everyone involved.

"The Applegarth was given to the town for use by the children of the town and the town council is the custodians of it.

"But as far as I am concerned there has been no final decision made as to what scheme is to go on there."

An audit of Hambleton’s play areas found 46 schemes had benefited from council aid over the last 18months.

Further work is been done to ensure areas in need of improvement are targeted in the future.

Advice and support is on offer from Lisa Wilson, Lifestyles Manager at Hambleton District Council on 01609 767149 or lisa.wilson@hambleton.gov.uk.