A Scout group has been awarded a lottery grant of almost £2,700 thanks to a former member of the pack.

Twenty one-year-old student Gary Beckett, pictured, who belonged to the 7th Spen Valley Scout Group, submitted the lottery bid to Awards for All as part of his BSc (Hons) in Recreation Management at the University of Lincoln.

Now the Scout group is to buy a plot of land from Kirklees Council with the windfall cash.

"One module of my degree was lottery funding and sports sponsorship and we had to put together a live or fake lottery bid," said Gary, a former pupil of Whitcliffe Mount School in Cleckheaton. "Because I had to go through each step, I thought I might as well do it for real.

"I immediately thought of the Scout group because I was a member from the age of six, when I was in the Beavers, right through to being a Venture Scout - 13 years in all. My mother and sister are also leaders at the group.

"When I told them about my assignment, they said they were hoping to buy a piece of land in front of the Scout hut which they used as a car park," he said. "They had spent money improving the area and building fencing around the hut. But the car park belonged to Kirklees Council and the Scout group had to pay rent on it."

Gary, who is a part-time lifeguard at Spenborough Baths, said the land was for sale at £1,250 but the Council told the group it must pay the survey fees and the Council's legal costs as well as their own. It doubled the price of the land and they were given only six months to find the money.

Gary said the Scout group, based in Shirley Road, Gomersal, had raised about £700 towards the payment but needed more cash quickly.

"It took about three months to get confirmation about the funding, but the bid was not a large amount so the process wasn't too complicated," said Gary, of Maple Grove in Gomersal.

"I thought it was 50/50 whether I would be successful and didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but I really wanted to put something back into the group and was proud of myself for doing it.

"I found out the bid had been successful on the same day the Scouts had their annual field day. I went along and handed a certificate to the group leader."

Leader Paul Wilkinson said: "I am really pleased at the windfall and this is great news for us as a group.

"Gary really is a credit to his parents and to what he has learned while in the Scouts."