SCHOOLS in Fleetwood are still beating the bullies thanks to a generous award from the Community Fund.

Fleetwood Community Association has been awarded £66,860 to spend on keeping its Safer Schools Project up and running.

The project has been operating in the area for the last 12 months and has involved many local schools which have all given positive feedback.

Safer Schools is aimed at helping young people aged between 11 and 16 years of age develop effective strategies for dealing with bullying, racist or oppressive behaviour.

The grant over the next two years will fund two existing part-time community diversity trainers, freelance workers' fees, producing information, learning materials, training for staff and volunteers, rent, general running costs and training for beneficiaries.

Chairman of Fleetwood Community Association Margaret Whittaker said of the award: "I am delighted! It is all very good news for the community and there is a lot of good work going on at present.

"Children come from different schools to attend the workshops and we have had a lot of good feedback. The project is run from Fleetwood Community Centre in Milton Street.

" We owe a lot of credit to our local county development officer, Robin Morgan, and vice-chairman John Hood who helped to prepare the bid ."

MP for Fleetwood and Blackpool North, Joan Humble said: "I am very pleased that this grant will enable the schools to continue to develop initiatives to reassure pupils and and parents that schools offer a safe environment.

"We need to all work together to ensure that bullying is kept at bay and that teachers are able to get on with their job in the classroom."

Fleetwood's grant is part of a massive £3,500,000 million award for the North West under the Community Fund's main grants scheme.

Community Fund Regional Awards Committee chair Clive Lloyd said: "Our grants are assessed and awarded by local people, for local people, and we hope that they will make a difference to some of the most vulnerable people in the North West. We have now given more than £219 million to 1,916 groups within the region since 1995."

"During the financial year we have targeted our grants to benefit minority communities, older people, refugees and asylum seekers. In addition we have also managed to fund projects which dealt with the foot and mouth epidemic in Cumbria -- this amounted to £885,861."

The Community Fund shares out money raised by the National Lottery and out of every £1 spent on the Lottery the Community Fund gets 4.7 pence.