A RIBBLE Valley nursery is set to have a first-rate playground for its children after securing £20,000 worth of funding.

Tots at Little Achievers @ Country Fields Children’s Nursery, Ramsgreave, will have a newly refurbished outdoor play area before spring is over.

The Department of Children, Schools and Families awarded the grant, which has enabled the nursery’s bosses to create a multi-sensory garden and an area where children can grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Bosses have vowed that all the play equipment will be made from Lancashire sourced wood from sustainable sources, and from recycled products where possible.

Little Achievers @ Country Fields Children’s Nursery applied for the funding via Sure Start which has been responsible for handing out and allocating the grants.

Managing director Sharon Alexander said: “We have wanted to develop a first-class outdoor activity area since taking over the nursery last summer and jumped at the chance to apply for this grant.

“We are thrilled that we can now provide a new and very pleasant garden and play area that is completely safe for our children, giving them the chance to move freely between indoor and outdoor activities.

“Outdoor activities are an essential part of a child’s daily life, not an optional extra, and learning through outdoor play is just as important as indoor activities.

“The new area has been well planned and specifically design-ed to meet our children’s interests and their need to be active, and also noisy and messy at times, in a totally safe environment.”

Managed by Rosy Apple Childcare Ltd, Little Achievers @ Country Fields is a 75-place nursery for children from birth to five.

Set in 120 acres of open countryside, the nursery also offers holiday and out-of-school care for children up to the age of eight.