Teesside has landed a windfall in National Lottery grants just eight months after emerging as the region's poor relation when it came to winning funding.
Out of £341,757 shared by organisations across the North-East during one period last year only £4,357 went to two groups from Middlesbrough.
The Awards For All organisation revealed it was becoming concerned that clubs and groups were not applying for or receiving lottery funding.
However, the latest round of awards has revealed that its advice is being heeded.
Community groups in Middlesbrough have received nine grants totalling £29,808 while groups across the rest of the Tees Valley have won a total share-out of £109,836.
Pat Lowes, senior awards officer for Awards for All in the North-East said: "The recent increase in applications to Awards for All is very pleasing, particularly as applications are now starting to come in from Middlesbrough and the Tees Valley area, where the take-up rate for Awards for All funding is patchy and, in some of the local authority areas, extremely poor.''
Some £623,533 has been recently shared out among 172 North-East groups, bringing the total amount awarded to organisations in the region to more than £1m in the past ten weeks.
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