Members of Somer-set County Council's Executive Board appear confident that childcare can soon be provided for every eligible four-year old that needs it.

No exact date was given, but the county's Childcare Partnership Plan was endorsed by the executive earlier this week, and another aim is to have places available for every eligible three-year-old by September 2004.

"The plan for 2002-03 lays the foundation to achieve this, and is written in the format prescribed by the Department for Education and Skills," said council co-ordinator John Kirby.

He added the plan had been based on extensive work carried out by the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership over the past year.

Looking back on last year, he also commented on preparation work to open five neighbourhood nurseries, one being at Holyrood in Chard, that will provide integrated childcare and early education for a total of about 210 children aged up to four years.

u Yeovil MP David Laws has commented on government figures relating to nursery place grants. Mr Laws said the government recently allocated a £3.7m grant to Somerset County Council to fund nursery places for 2002-03.

"I am pleased to have been informed that the government will provide £3.7m. However, I believe that more needs to be done so that all three-year-olds in our area will be able to attend a free nursery.

"There are approximately 5,500 three-year-olds in our area. This allocation ought to boost the number of nursery places available in Somerset over 2002-03 from 2,400 to 3,100.

"Crucially, this means that the proportion of three-year-olds who are able to go to a nursery will only go from 43.6per cent to 56.3 per cent".