THE National Lottery is 10 years old tomorrow (Saturday) and local groups helped by its grants are counting the benefits.

A total of £20 million has helped boost the fortunes of groups in the area since the lottery started in November 1994.

In 2001, funding transformed The Borrowers Toy Library on the Sixways Trading Estate, Barnards Green, helping it expand from one afternoon a week to three days.

£103,000 over three years meant co-ordinator Sue Rogers was taken on board to develop the library into a bigger service. It now has 6,000 toys, which it lends to more than 1,000 families, schools, clubs and child carers. It also runs a mobile service.

"The impact on us is massive," said Mrs Rogers. "I think the library would have shut if we hadn't have had that funding. We certainly wouldn't have had the toy library like it is today."

The lottery funding, which also helped with rent, running costs and refurbishment of the toy library, ran out in March but a grant of £54,000 from Children in Need and donations will keep it running for the next two years.

Age Concern in Malvern is another charity to have benefited from lottery money. In June, it received £100,783 from the Awards for All scheme.

Spokesman George Waugh said the money enabled it to keep running an important mobile day centre, set up with lottery money in 2001.

"The centre provides an important life-line to isolated or disabled people in the community," he said.

Other buildings restored or built with the help of lottery grants include Little Malvern Priory, Cradley Village Hall and Stoke Lacy Village Hall.

Gazette & Reporter editor Nick Howells was chairman of Stoke Lacy Village Hall committee when the new hall was built.

"Without the National Lottery the village would now be without a place where the community can get together, yet the new building is at the centre of village life and is the venue for events like this year's village pantomime," he said.

Malvern Rugby Club's community tag rugby programme was helped by lottery money, as was Malvern Theatres, the BCTV Green Gym and Malvern branch of Home Start, a charity helping families with young children.

But not every Malvern applicant for lottery cash has been successful. In January 1998, a £1.8m plan for new sports facilities at The Chase, supported by £784,000 from Malvern Hills District Council, was refused National Lottery funding.

However, confirmation was received this week that the Malverns Heritage Project has been successful in its £800,000 lottery bid to install cattle grids and restore spas and springs around the Malvern Hills.