A FLOATING jetty and new lift will be built at a Farmoor Reservoir after a local charity won £80,000 during a televised competition.

The pontoon project beat 22nd Oxford Sea Scouts to win the cash as part of the National Lottery's People's Millions, run in conjunction with ITV's Thames Valley Tonight news programme.

Viewers voted for projects they wanted to win one of the five grants on the programme, which was run in partnership with the Big Lottery Fund.

The money will go towards building a floating jetty and lift to help disabled sailors and their helpers get in and out of boats more easily.

Accessible Sailing, the charity behind the project, had already raised £120,000 - now the £80,000 grant will give them enough funds to start on the first phase of construction next spring.

Bill Proctor, secretary of Accessible Sailing, said: "We are absolutely delighted. The project has been under consideration now for about four years.

"Our users would much rather use a lift than run their wheelchairs down a 60ft ramp. The pontoon at the moment is made out of plastic - it's very unstable and it bobs up and down. It's approached down a flight of steps. There's no way a wheelchair could get to the existing pontoon."

Mr Proctor added he hoped the new facilities would attract paralympic sailors to train at the club.

Currently boats used by disabled people are launched into the water from the beach end of the reservoir.

Volunteers have to lift disabled sailors into the boats, and then wade thigh-high into the water, pushing the boats until they float.

Nigel Vick, who has been running the School Sailing Association at Farmoor for 27 years, said: "This project sends out a message that disabled people can take part in this activity independently.

"The pontoon will make it as easy for disabled sailors to take part in this great activity as it is for able-bodied sailors."

This is the third year the Big Lottery Fund and ITV have teamed up for the show.

Last year's contest saw almost 350,000 viewers cast votes to give 85 projects a share of more than £4.2m.