AN Uttlesford children’s charity has said a huge thank you to St Mary’s Church Saffron Walden following a welcome donation.

The church held a carol service and collection over the Christmas period and town mayor Bob Eastham nominated the Buffy Playbus to receive the �600 proceeds.

It cost �67,000 to keep the bus on the road last year and the church donation will go a long way to meeting ever-increasing costs in 2011, exacerbated by last week’s VAT rise. On Tuesday, the charity’s project manager Rosie Juhl gratefully received the cheque.

She said: “We are so delighted to have local support for a local community charity. I would like to thank everyone involved from St Mary’s who took part.

“Just keeping the bus on the road is extremely expensive.

“We are currently spending around �260 a week on diesel but it is not just the price of fuel that has gone up, our insurance has also increased by 10 per cent. Last year our insurance cost was �4200.

“The money will go towards the general running of the bus - it will go a long way. It won’t go towards anything specific but it is fantastic to have in the coffers.”

Buffy Playbus is a double-decker bus which has been specially converted to provide, easily accessible and supervised play for the under fives across the district.

It provides quality play and learning facilities under the guidance of professional early years workers and travels all across Uttlesford.

The bus can also be hired out for children’s parties.

“The main thing for us at the Buffy Bus is that we do not want to exclude anyone,” said Mrs Juhl. “We want to be able to welcome people from any walk of life and provide a helpful service to children and adults.”

For more information visit buffybus.com/index.html or call Mrs Juhl on 01799 522130.