SCHOOLS in North Yorkshire have been awarded a windfall of £3.4m from the lottery to improve sport facilities.

This huge boost from the New Opportunities for PE and Sport Programme will support the creation of new, and modernisation of existing, indoor and outdoor sports facilities.

Chris McGee, head of continuing education at North Yorkshire County Council, will be co-ordinating the bids.

He said: "We welcome the money, but we don't have any fixed plans on how we are going to spend it."

He said that they were now looking at what they will and won't be able to spend the money on.

He said the money could be spent on many things including building and modernisation costs, the purchase of land, synthetic pitches, flood lighting and work on outdoor education centres.

But, he said, only a small proportion of it could be used on development costs, such as architects and designers.

Mr McGee said they also knew of certain things the money could not be used on, including paying for staff to write the applications, activities that promote religious beliefs and retrospective applications.

Mr McGee said that Ryedale could well benefit from some of this money.

He added: "We will work with colleagues in Ryedale District Council because clearly there are already some facilities that exist in Ryedale and we wouldn't want to do things that Ryedale District Council would not support."

Updated: 09:24 Thursday, November 22, 2001