THE North-East has received more than £1million in lottery cash to help build new nurseries, including two in the Chester-le-Street area.

The New Opportunities Fund money was officially announced on Wednesday and has been awarded to projects that involve childcare for pre-school children. The projects should also help parents who want to return to work or education.

The Chester-le-Street area has received £56,000 from the lottery fund to build two nurseries.

One will be situated in the grounds of Bullion Lane School, which will provide 44 places for children and the other will be in Grange Villa, which will create 22 places.

The nursery will be situated in a community building, which is currently being rebuilt with the help of Grange Villa Community Enterprise.

Sure Start Chester-le-Street is involved in both projects.

In the Stanley area, about £129,000 has been awarded to set up two nurseries, one at the Sure Start Stanley offices, on Clifford Road, Stanley, and another within the grounds of Bloemfontein Junior and Infant School in The Middles, near Craghead. Malcolm Pitt, programme manager for Sure Start Stanley said the Craghead facility was desperately needed, as there are currently no nurseries in that area.

Both facilities should be completed by March next year and will receive about £30,000 a year from Sure Start once they are up and running, which should enable some places to be subsidised.

Mr Pitt said: "There's a lack of wrap-around, full day-care nurseries in the area. The two nurseries we're building will both be offering 26 places."

In total, 11 nursery projects in the region have received a slice of the lottery funding.

More than £200,000 was awarded to build extensions to the Hetton and Hetton Lyons Nursery Schools in East Durham and about £200,000 has been given to create 114 nursery places at the New Penshaw and Shiney Row primary schools near Sunderland.

The city's university also received money to provide seven new places at its nursery.