CHILDREN in North Yorkshire are to benefit from an extra £1.75 million boost to fund pre-school places for three-year-olds, after a battle by the county council.
The council was allocated funding for just 106 three-year-old places during the current summer term.
It was so disappointed it took up the matter with the Department for Education and Employment.
Now North Yorkshire County Council has been told it is to receive money to fund an extra 2,200 places for three-year-olds in the autumn and spring terms in the next school year.
Bernadette Jones, head of policy and development for North Yorkshire's education service, said: "This is tremendous news for education in North Yorkshire."
The award means that parents with a child born between September 1, 1996, and March 31, 1997, will be able to go to their local play group or private provider and ask for a free place from this September.
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