A MILTON ABBOT -based children's charity has scooped an enormous £300,000 grant from the Lottery, it was announced this week.

The money means CHICKS —Country Holidays for Inner City Kids — can expand its work by opening another holiday centre to offer life-changing breaks to disadvantaged youngsters.

CHICKS applied for a Community Fund grant, putting forward their detailed proposals earlier this year, but were told their bid had only a one-in-four chance of success.

Andy Lyle, CHICKS general manager, said: 'All being well, we should be taking bookings for our second centre by the end of December, ready to fill the place with the sound of happy children by March.

'The assessor obviously liked what he saw when he visited us at Woodside Retreat and shared our vision to help us realise a long-awaited dream,' he said.

'The need for a second centre became very obvious two years ago when we started turning children away due to lack of space.'

This year there are 700 children booked in for an exciting free break at the Woodside Retreat in Milton Abbot.

When the second centre is fully operational, the charity will be able to provide a further 500-600 places, taking the total number of disadvantaged children from across the UK helped by CHICKS to more than 1,000 each year.

The charity was told they had only a small chance of getting a grant, but CHICKS fundraiser Tracy Izod said they had still been hopeful of winning the cash.

Mrs Izod said: 'We were told we might not get all the money we asked for, but when they had visited Milton Abbot, we were given very positive feedback.'

Mrs Izod said the second centre would allow a different type of experience for the children who visited.

'The activities will be more beach based, including surfing.

'It will give the children that come here every year a chance to go to a different centre, do different activities and see a different part of the countryside,' she said.

Mrs Izod said the growth of CHICKS had been amazing, considering when the charity had started ten years ago, it took just 25 children to its Milton Abbot centre.

By 1999, CHICKS gave free holidays in Devon to 374 children — this summer the centre will be packed to bursting point with 700 children.

Mrs Izod estimated that, provided the holiday centre opened on time, the charity would probably be able to take 1,200 children next year.

The second holiday centre will be sited in North Cornwall.

The charity says it has a site in mind, but are unable to identify it yet.

CHICKS hope to open the second centre early in 2003 to celebrate its tenth anniversary as a registered charity.

Staff have been in preliminary talks with local builders and hope to start work this summer.

Mrs Izod said the centre would also benefit the small community nearby, as the expansion would create jobs and benefit local businesses.