TELEPHONE votes are needed to help a historic park secure £50,000 of lottery funding for an educational play area.

Newcastle Borough Council is bidding for the cash from the Big Lottery Fund to build the facility in the middle of Queen Elizabeth Park in Pooldam.

The borough will go head-to-head with a youth theatre project from Wednesbury in the West Midlands, which wants £50,000, on ITV1's People's Millions on Central News at 6pm on Monday, November 23.

The People's Millions slot will award lottery funding to five schemes across the West Midlands throughout the course of the week.

Four projects will go head-to-head over consecutive nights and a fifth scheme will be declared runner up.

If the money is secured, the play area would be built some time next year. The park contains a motte, or mound, which is one of the few surviving remnants of the medieval fortification which gave the town of Newcastle its name, and is a scheduled ancient monument.

It has been used as inspiration for the play area.

Council officers have joined forces with youngsters from nearby St Giles's and St George's Primary School, off Orme Road, to come up with the design of the play area.

Features would include a colourful castle-shaped climbing frames, slides and a drawbridge. The equipment would be sited on a blue safety surface designed to represent a castle moat and the play area would be flanked by a timber stockade, earth mounds and boulders.

Lynne Evans, headteacher of St Giles's and St George's School, said: "At the moment there is a skate park for the older ones but the younger ones have nothing.

"The students have been very excited about being involved in the design process. They loved the theme of castles and have come up with some very creative ideas."

Jim Worgan, chairman of Newcastle Civic Society, said the play area would help to raise people's awareness of the existence of the motte.

He said: "I support anything that will educate children about the historical importance of Newcastle.

"It was a very important town in its day and was here well before Stoke-on-Trent. But not many people seem to know the motte is there."

Councillor Mary Maxfield, cabinet member for culture and active communities, urged residents to vote.

She said: "The cost of a BT landline call is just 10p and the play area would mean so much to children."

Linda Seddon, who lives near to the park in St Paul's Road, Newcastle, said she supported the project.

The 48-year-old said: "It is a lovely little park and is very peaceful, but it does need clearing up a bit."

The voting phone number will be available on November 23. People can now register their email address on Newcastle Borough Council's website so a reminder to vote can be sent out.

Voting lines will open at 9am on the day and close at midnight. To visit the borough council's website log onto www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/newcastle.

Featuring on the programme on November 24 is the Young Mums Creative and Healthy Communities Community Learning Group, based in Trentham. The group wants £28,000 to provide support, training and guidance to young parents. They will be competing against a £50,000 bid to refurbish a hall in Birmingham.

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