A choir from an Oxford estate which began life as part of a television documentary has been saved from folding and now plans to produce its own CD after receiving £4,000 in grants.

The Blackbird Leys Choir, which started out as Ivor's Choir on Five's The Singing Estate in early 2006, this week secured £2,000 from Oxford City Council's south east area committee. It was also handed an identical amount by the Oxfordshire Community Foundation.

Nick Tills, the choir's chairman, told the south east area committee: "We are in a transition stage. We are moving away from having financial support from the Oxford Philomusica to a position where we are having to stand on our own two feet.

"We are now looking for a new choir leader as we can no longer afford the one we had with the backing of Oxford Philomusica.

"I believe, and all the other people believe, that we are socially inclusive. All ages, backgrounds and races are welcome to join the choir. Anyone can come to the concerts and we run lots of different concerts for lots of different people."

Speaking after the grant was approved, Mr Tills said: "We are delighted. We desperately need the funding to carry forward our work."

"The money will enable us to do other stuff such as record a CD, buy display boards to take to our concerts and get T-shirts and sweatshirts made up. We've got plenty we can do with it and it puts the choir on a much firmer footing."

Choir member Jeremy Renals, of Grebe Close, Greater Leys, said: "The choir had been a bit quiet over the summer break and I was a bit worried things were grinding to a halt. Without this cash it would have been very difficult to continue.

"We've had a couple of successful concerts over the summer and it would have been a real shame had we stopped.

"The choir has done so much great work and this news is absolutely brilliant."

Blackbird Leys city councillor Rae Humberstone, one of the committee members who approved the grant, said: "Blackbird Leys has, and still gets, a bad press so it is great to see something that raises the profile of the estate."

The choir is currently preparing for its Christmas concert, which will take place at the Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry on Friday, December 12. To find out more about the group call Nick Tills on 01865 715494 or 07867 801387.