A New Forest after-school club - hit by the recent collapse of one of the region's largest playclub companies - has been re-launched as a parent-run community project.

Hodgehegs in Lymington was one of four clubs in the New Forest formerly run by Adelphi Playclubs.

Adelphi, based in Christchurch, which ran 11 after-school clubs in Hampshire and Dorset until sunk by financial problems on November 30, is now in the hands of the Official Receiver.

But the Hodgehegs club has been saved from the wreckage by the determined efforts of staff, parents and local authority play co-ordinators.

Yesterday afternoon - after a break of 13 days - staff collected pupils as usual from nine schools in the Lymington area and cared for them in Pennington Scout Hut until their parents came to collect them.

The other three former Adelphi clubs in the New Forest - at New Milton, Calmore and Dibden Purlieu - are making similar efforts to get going again.

Hodgehegs is the first to get back in action, but the hard work to resurrect the club could have been in vain without a lifeline thrown by another local community project.

Forest Bus in Totton - which runs playschemes all over the Forest area - has offered to loan play equipment plus one of their playworker/drivers to Hodgehegs. The helping hand could make the difference between survival and failure for the problem-plagued club.

In less than two weeks Hodgehegs lost its parent company, its bus, and the qualified minibus driver from its five-strong staff.

Another blow came from the committee who run the club's home base in Pennington Scout Hut. They revealed last week they want the after-schoolers to leave by Easter so the Scouts can make better use of the premises.

Hodgehegs play leader Karen Hurl is optimistic. She said the timely offer from Jane Peacock at Forest Bus had solved a huge problem, and they had other reasons to feel confident.

"As a community-based project we have been granted £2,400 by the Hampshire Early Years Childcare Partnership,'' she said. New Forest Voluntary Services minibus pool has organised transport for us and we have passed an initial inspection by Ofsted which allows us to open again on a shortened hours basis - from 3pm until 4.55pm - which is better than nothing.

"Once a full Ofsted report has been registered - which we hope will be just a couple of weeks - we can open our normal 3pm to 6pm and be back providing a full service which is so much needed by local working parents."