30434A CLUB that helps hundreds of children with their homework is threatened with a funding crisis.

Melksham Homework Club, set up in January 2003, has 600 children registered on its books.

The service, which costs £10,000 a year to run and is held at Melksham library, was given two years of funding by the National Lottery but this money will run out in December.

The club is aimed at nine to 16-year-olds and runs every day during the week from 3.30pm until the library closes and also on Saturdays.

It offers Internet access to children who do not have the facility at home and allows them to print work for free.

Supervisor Liz Selby spends every day with the children in the library's Infozone, giving them one-on-one help.

Community librarian Ros Meyer said: "It is part of their lives now and it's really vital to them.

"When pupils get their homework a lot of it relies on internet access.

"A lot of children don't have a computer, or they don't know how to use it, or their parents use it for business and don't want their children using it."

She said children had praised the service, saying it had improved their grades and made them enjoy homework.

"There's a really team spirit to it and it's a social event and they love it, which is amazing," she said.

"One child said she has got higher grades for her SATS exams and her homework report grade has gone up."

The community has already started to pull together to support the club.

The Refa Tandoori restaurant, in Market Place, raised £250 towards the service at a fundraising dinner on Tuesday April 12.

George Ward School has also promised some cash to keep the club afloat.

Community librarian Jane Dunmow said: "Like a lot of these projects it was set up with specific funding.

"We have got funding until the end of December but after that to carry on for another full year we need to find a new source of funding."

The club is one of just two in Wiltshire. The other, in Calne, started a year earlier and has secured funding through John Bentley School.

The librarians are concerned they will have the same funding crisis every year unless they can secure a continuous source of money.

They plan to ask Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council for support.