CHILDREN at Allsorts Pre-School in Wootton Bassett are looking forward to some new play equipment, courtesy of the council's annual grant aid scheme.

Allsorts is among the 15 local groups to have benefited from this year's grant aid presentation, in which Wootton Bassett Council invites worthy groups to apply for a one-off donation.

This year, the council dished out more than £2,000 to community groups and the pre-school received a much-needed cheque for £100, which will now go towards play equipment at its new premises.

The pre-school's super-visor Judith Crimp explain-ed: "We will shortly be relocating to new premises in the grounds of St Barthol-omew's School and although we've received a £100,000 grant from the Lottery Commission for our new buildings, we'll need all the money we can get to stock them with equipment."

Allsorts provides pre-school education for 50 local children aged from two to five.

Judith added: "This is about the third time we've received money from the council it has been very generous and the children will be very pleased with the new play equipment we buy them."

Another worthy cause which benefited in the grant aid scheme is the town's War Memorial Committee.

Set up in 1999 to establish a permanent memorial to the town's 72 war dead, the cam-paign took a step closer to its goal with the council's cheque for £500.

War Memorial Committee member Steve Bucknell explained why the donation is so important:

"We are now able to order the memorial and hope it will be ready in around four months."

"Since we started we've raised around £20,000 for a memorial but we still have about £3,000 to raise before we can pay for it so we'll be fundraising hard while it's being crafted."

A rather unorthodox war memorial, Wootton Bassett's monument will be a bronze hand holding a bronze globe and was designed by local army cadet, Lance Corp Alan Wilson from the Wootton Bassett detachment.

Representing the heroic sacrifice of the soldiers who gave their lives in the two World Wars, it also represents mankind holding the world in its hands for the future.

In the past, Armistice Day has been marked in Wootton Bassett with a march to a cardboard epitaph.

The bronze globe will stand on a plinth in the High Street, close to the Town Hall.

The other local beneficiar-ies in this year's aid scheme were: Age Concern (£150), Alzheimer's Society North Wiltshire Branch (£200), Wootton Bassett Choral Society (£100), Wootton Bassett and District Art Society (£50), Wootton Bassett Sea Cadets (£100), Wootton Bassett Scout Group (£100), Wootton Bassett Orchestra (£100), Wootton Bassett Brass Band (£150), Longleaze Pre-School and Nursery (£100), Wiltshire Bobby Van Appeal Trust (£100), Royal British Legion (£150), Old Court Community Pre-School (£100) and Splash Wiltshire (£50).