YOUNGSTERS across the borough will be heard!

Children of Bury Sing, an annual concert involving hundreds of primary school pupils, has been saved after the two local MPs intervened.

The seven-year-old event was near to folding when both the National Lotteries Board and the North West Arts refused funding.

But Donna Kiernan, then deputy head of St Mary's Primary, Hawkshaw, and now head of Our Lady of Lourdes Primary in Brandlesholme, was determined not to make this year's event the last. She launched an appeal through the Bury Times asking for business sponsors.

Mrs Kiernan said: "I contacted David Chaytor and through him and Ivan Lewis, Children of Bury Sing has secured funding from the North West Arts and the event will go ahead in March of next year."

The Vivace Charitable Trust was established in 1997 to give schoolchildren in Bury and throughout the North West the opportunity to sing at large scale venues. To date it has brought more than 450 Bury primary pupils together to perform.

Some of the children who take part in the Children of Bury Sing concert are also then invited to take part in an annual choral event at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, together with other youngsters in the region.

Mrs Kiernan said: "I am elated that the concerts will go ahead. It did look quite desperate at one stage. Hundreds of children in Bury and from across the North West will benefit from this."