Poole youngsters nearly lost out on thousands of pounds for play schemes in favour of helping fund a badly needed new burial ground.

Borough of Poole council leader Cllr Elaine Atkinson revealed that £365,000 was nearly siphoned off to spend on the dead rather than the living.

“That would have been a grave abuse of the money which parents and supporters fought to be returned to Poole,” said Cllr Tony Trent, Liberal Democrat, who represents Alderney ward.

He had appealed to cabinet for the un-ringfenced money to be spent on play schemes after parents and supporters lobbied MPs and government ministers.

A government grant of £610,170 for 11 projects in the borough was axed by the coalition and later a £365,000 grant was reinstated.

Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Mike Brooke warned last December that the money could end up being used for virtually anything by the cash-strapped council.

But four months after the grant was returned, Cllr Atkinson announced at full council that it would be spent on the Playbuilder schemes.

Cllr Trent said he was concerned that only a handful would be delivered and would do all he could to support the three in Alderney.

Clive Smith, head of leisure services, said: “We understand that there will be very strong support for every one of the 11 sites on the original Playbuilder list for year two.

“However, we don’t believe the reduced amount of money from government will be enough to make a real difference on every site.

“With this in mind it may be better to target our limited resource on some, rather than all, of these play areas to achieve meaningful improvements.”

He said they would be reassessing all the sites, which are spread across the borough. In year one, 11 play areas were improved with a grant of £536,753 topped up with developer contributions.