A SOUTHAMPTON scout group has received almost £9,000 for new equipment thanks to two grants.

19th Itchen North Scouts, based in Thornhill, have been awarded a £3,500 national lottery grant as well as £5,400 from a Thornhill community grant on Saturday (March 18).

The group, with 90 members aged between six and 14, are planning to use the funds for more tents and camping equipment after seeing a surge in numbers.

Sam Tudjaroglu, Cub Scout leader, said he couldn’t have imagined the increase in popularity of the group just two years ago.

Sam, 41, who has been a member of the group for 32 years said: “As an estimate, we must have received about £12,000 over the last nine months. We’ve needed it too as the popularity of our group has gone through the roof. Every six months we have one or two new people who want to join and we are at full capacity.“We bought some new tents with some of our previous funding and now we need another again, but this is equipment that will last us ten years hopefully.”