A pre-school and a solar panel scheme for a West Devon sports hall are among a range of projects to benefit from National Lottery good cause funding.

The Big Oak Pre-School in Chagford and the Winkleigh War Memorial Recreation Field are two of 76 projects in the South West taking a share in grants totalling almost £560,000 from the Big Lottery Fund's small grants Awards for All programme.

The Big Oak Pre-School has received £9,014 to provide a breakfast club, holiday club and after-school activity club for local children aged from three to eleven.

The breakfast club runs between 8am and 9am each morning, with the after-school club running from 3.30pm to 6pm. The holiday club service runs from 9am to 5pm on weekdays in the school holidays.

The service will provide youngsters with positive activities outside school hours.

Rosie Beer, senior pre-school leader said: 'The project started back in August with our summer holiday club. That was really successful, and turned out to be extremely popular with children and parents in the area.

'As a result, we decided to follow this up with a breakfast club and after-school club for children to come along and provide fun activities for them. The long term aim is to try and be open from 8am to 6pm most days.

'The grant will help fund workshop leaders to come in and provide a series of diverse opportunities for local children. We will be able to provide workshops in dance, arts and crafts, music, drama, and other areas.

'We have also invested some of the money in new equipment for the older children who will attend the group. As a pre-school we already had a lot of toys aimed at young children, but this allows us to invest in a variety of resources for those too old for the equipment we have already.

'The grant makes it viable to run these clubs for twelve months, and try to make them as successful and self-sufficient as possible.'

The pre-school offers high quality Early Years education for local children. It is based on the Chagford Primary School site, with the strong links between the two schools making the transition from pre-school to primary school as smooth as possible for children.

The Winkleigh War Memorial Recreation Field has been awarded £10,000 to install solar panels on the roof of the community sports centre. The panels will reduce electricity costs and make the building more environmentally-friendly.

The Winkleigh War Memorial Recreation Field was established soon after the second world war as a private charitable trust whose purpose was to provide facilities for the recreation and education of residents of Winkleigh.

Its running costs are not met in any way by the community at large or any local authority, but from fundraising events.

The sports centre has a snooker and pool room, table tennis table, showers and changing rooms and full kitchen facilities. The field itself houses the football pitch, bowling green and tennis courts.

Mark Cotton, Big Lottery Fund's head of region for the South West said: 'Awards for All offers small grants which make a big impact on the lives of people most in need.

'I am delighted that National Lottery funding is supporting groups which are enabling people to overcome their difficulties.'