Residents and councillors are 'thrilled to bits' to hear that the £576,000 grant money from central government for the redevelopmant of Devon playparks has finally been granted.

It means play parks at Okehampton and Princetown are each due to receive £35,000.

Christine Marsh, chair of Devon County Council and a member of Okehampton Town Council said: 'I am quite simply over the moon, and also rather relieved.

'It is great that government has been able to honour a promise and come up with the money. In turn, that means that all the hard work put in by local residents and councillors at the fourteen locations involved across Devon will not have been wasted.

'People must have been thinking that their consultation ideas had all been forgotten — now they will know it was worth it after all.'

Government will in fact pay slightly less than the total, the difference being made good at county level.

Ann Inman, clerk to Dartmoor Forest Parish Council, which oversees Princetown, said ' We have a meeting with Devon County next month to finalise the details, but all is looking good.

'We still hope to get an extension on a ruling that the project must be finished and the money spent by March 31 2011 — the weather up in Princetown can be problematic over the winter to say the least.'

The news is being seen as a victory for the power of lobbying. All parties have gone to great efforts to pressure London for the money.

Wendy Stones, parish councillor from Princetown, said 'We did so much work initially, then it looked like it was all lost. So we wrote to everyone from the Prime Minister down — and it has worked!

'It's fantastic news for the village and its' youngsters, many of whom contributed to the process'.