BOLTON Toy Library does an excellent job of ensuring that children learn and develop through play.

So it's worrying that its future is under threat because a lottery grant is about to run out. The local education authority has backed it financially until 2005, but it needs secure cash beyond that to keep going.

The Toy Library allows children, parents and childminders to borrow toys and videos for a very small weekly charge and has an outreach service to local schools.

It is a well-used and much-needed service, and I hope someone with their hands on the national purse strings listens to the children's own pleas to fund it. If you care about young lives locally, please make a fuss now.