SEVENTY new nursery places are to be created for children in the Booker and Castlefield area of High Wycombe via a government grant.

But a bid by the county council's Early Years Partnership for a similar neighbourhood nursery in Marsh and Micklefield failed, because the area is not considered deprived enough.

The council's Early Years Partnership is getting £300,000 in revenue and £100,000-plus capital for the neighbourhood nursery, as part of a Government drive nationwide to provide a million new child care places by 2004 in the most disadvantaged areas of the country.

Booker and Castlefield is the most deprived ward in the county and one of the bottom 20 per cent in the country.

Half of children under 16 live in poverty; there are high levels of families on benefit, living in poor homes, or homeless and in temporary accommodation; and people are in poorer health than in other parts of the county.

Ted Collins, one of three Labour district councillors representing the ward said here were probably more children under five there than anywhere else.

"This is excellent news," he said "We want to get mums out of their homes. At the moment with children under five they are stuck indoors and their children are stuck there too.

"And it is good for the kids too. It gives them a start, mixing with other kids and beginning to learn at as early an age as possible."

The nursery would have to be somewhere easily accessible for mums with small children, he said.

The money will enable an existing building to be adapted and the nursery should open in April next year. It will be privately run, which is what the Government wants, with the Early Years Partnership getting it going and watching progress. The money will last for three years after which the nursery will be expected to continue under its own steam. Four companies have put in tenders.

Kim Hart, the county council's head of early years, said the intention was to provide quality day nursery care for the neediest children from birth to school age.

A proportion would be reserved for local families and the places subsidised.

There was already free part-time nursery education for children over three, worth about £1,200 a year and child care tax credits for families on low incomes which could be worth £70 a week.

Mrs Hart said she did not know how many children needed day-care in Booker and Castlefield because it was an area where extended families helped out.

But she said day nurseries were wonderful for developing relationships early on and there was clear evidence that if where children got nursery care they achieved better later.