THE Big Lottery Fund has made a big difference to the lives of thousands of children in West Devon over the last two years.

West Devon Borough Council was awarded a £200,000 Big Lottery Fund grant in 2008 to provide free play opportunities in the area for young people aged up to 18, through the 'Really Playing in West Devon' project.

The money has enabled the council to provide a range of play activities, during both term time and the holidays. These include OCRA Action, who this year repeated their successful eight-week after- school sport and art clubs in eleven different villages, and took their sport and art sessions out to rural communities in the Okehampton area during the holidays.

They also took play and art activities to a further 14 community events, including Okehampton Show, where 350 children and young people took part, and hosted another Skate and Bike event.

In the Tavistock area, the Youth Café and the Youth Service TRYP Project put on free play opportunities in Horrabridge, Bere Alston and Yelverton, and delivered a varied summer programme of holiday activities supported by the Big Lottery Funding.

The programme included trips to Woodlands, Crealey, Paignton Zoo and Quay West. The Youth Café took young people tree surfing and put on dance workshops, while the Youth Service TRYP project supported regular play sessions through the youth clubs and took their mobile unit out to the villages.

In Princetown, the POP project had a fantastic summer, putting on 28 different play and activity sessions. These included trips to the zoo and woodlands, art and craft sessions, climbing, tree surfing, mountain biking, music sessions, ice skating, cookery sessions and making fairy wings.

Since the start of the project, almost 2,500 children and young people have benefited from the Big Lottery Funding, which still has one more year to go.

Alongside these four projects, the Big Lottery grant has contributed to the successful West Devon Play Forum Summer Play Directory, which listed more than 30 different play providers putting on activities.

It has also supported the two successful National Play Day events held last month in Tavistock and Okehampton, which saw more than 400 children taking part in free play activities.

West Devon Borough Councillor Mandy Govier, chair of the West Devon play forum and the council's young people's champion, said: 'Play is such a vital part of children and young people's development; it is a real pleasure to see a project like this taking play to the heart of our community.'