Yorkshire folk have gone Millennium-mad coming up with new ideas for the next century - and new figures prove it.

The region has come second in a league table for the number of people winning Millennium Commission awards to mark the transition to the year 2000.

Twelve per cent of all awards have gone to people from Yorkshire and Humberside - making the region second only to the North West, with 13 per cent.

The awards are given to individual people who come up with bright ideas that will benefit their local community - and are given through organisations ranging from Help the Aged to the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

They have gone to a host of schemes ranging from community centres, luncheon clubs and clubs for the elderly and disabled, to educational trips to Mongolia and Bolivia.

In North Yorkshire one of the awards, of £3,365, went to Alison Seabrooke, from Riccall, near Selby, through the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers.

Alison is chairman of Riccall Regen 2000 which aims to raise £1.5 million for a new community centre in the village and has been working for three years on gathering funds and pushing through the planning process.

She was given the award to pay for training courses, child care, travel and subsistence. So far, £750,000 has been raised towards the centre and Alison said they also hoped to receive £496,000 of European funding.

Her latest project has been organising an exhibition over the Bank Holiday weekend, from August 29 to 31 looking at Riccall past, present and future, to raise even more funds.

Three more grants were given through Help the Aged.

Kenneth Carter, of Dunnington, York, secured a grant of £9,950 towards setting up a club for elderly and disabled people in the village, John and Elizabeth Leckenby, of Helmsley, received a grant of £2,000 towards a hospital run for elderly people and the Rev Colin Kellett received £4,968 towards a lunch club in the town.

Two examples of another type of grant were given to teachers through Earthwatch.

David Jackson, from the Cranedale Centre, a study centre in Kirby Grindalythe, near Malton, and Justin Maguire, from Graham School in Scarborough, were both given awards to pay for expeditions abroad which they will use as the basis for teaching back in the classroom.

Mr Jackson's award was to look at Inner Mongolia's lost water and Mr Maguire's was for a trip to Bolivia to study savannah beds.

Millennium Commission spokeswoman, Judith Moore, said: "Congratulations to the people in Yorkshire and Humberside who have taken it upon themselves to make a difference to their own lives as well as their communities as we approach the new millennium."

She said it was planned to give out 40,000 awards by the year 2001 and so far only 2,000 had been given out, with 12 per cent of these from the Yorkshire and Humberside region.

People can apply under a variety of themes, including the environment, civic pride, linking of generations, health education and the increasing the understanding of science and technology and faith.

Anyone wanting to find out more should call the Millennium Commission hotline on 0171 880 2030 for a list of the organisations the applications are made through.

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