GROUPS from across the region have scooped a massive £4.7m in National Lottery funding.

The money, from the Lottery's new Community Fund, will go to 30 voluntary groups across County Durham, Teesside and Tyneside.

The aim is to help support those community and social groups in greatest need.

The biggest award from the new fund - formerly the Lottery Charities Board - goes to the Headland Future project in Hartlepool which wins £441,557.

It is behind a scheme to convert the former Golden Anchor pub into a youth centre with bars, a dance floor and fitness area.

Elsewhere, a Darlington church has scooped £300,000 in a bid to transform itself into a new community facility.

Members of the congregation at St Columba's had been keeping their fingers crossed that their bid for cash would be successful.

Plans had been drawn up to create a new community hall and meeting rooms, together with additional facilities such as a coffee bar and new kitchen.

The grant marks the beginning of a rebirth for the church, which, a few years ago, had seen numbers dwindle.

Architect Malcolm Cundick, who has been commissioned to come up with a design for the building, said: "Everyone has worked really hard to get this together and the bid has been successful at long last.

"There is no reason now why work cannot start on the project later this year."

Other major awards go to the Darlington and District Youth Community Association - £189,425 - and the town's Council for Voluntary Services, which wins £135,695.

Middlesbrough Mind receives £183,731 so it can keep open a drop-in centre and coffee bar for people with mental health problems.

Further north, St Oswald's Hospice, at Gosforth, near Newcastle, has won £300,000 to help towards the cost of building a new children's hospice adjoining the existing adult one.

John Clarke, chairman of the community fund's regional awards committee, said: "We are delighted to announce these grants and want to build on previous success by renewing our commitment to those at greatest disadvantage."