A CAMPAIGNING group set up to help cash-strapped Sure Start has been awarded £25,000 to fund music sessions throughout Dawlish and Teignmouth.

Friends of Sure Start is celebrating the successful application, granted by the Youth Music organisation, which will pay for Sarah Van Veen's Snazzy Maracas project to take music into pre-schools and nurseries over the next year.

FOSS chairman Rachel Cooper said sessions had already started and it is planned to take the project into groups in Dawlish, Teignmouth, Shaldon and Bishopsteignton.

The award is just part of the determined effort by FOSS members to support Sure Start's services.

She explained that the organisation had been given a reprieve from closure this year but had seen its funds slashed by 13 per cent – a total of £74,000.

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