THE PROCEEDS hatched from 1,000 knitted chicks have been presented to the domestic welfare committee at West Dorset Women's Refuge .

The Let's Make It community group knitted the chicks and placed them with chocolate eggs provided by local supermarkets such as Morrisons, Waitrose in Dorchester and Tesco, these were then sold by the way of donations in the Dorchester council offices and at Weymouth Pavilion over the Easter period.

The chicks raised more than £600, which was donated to the refuge by Matt Prosser, chief executive of Let's Make It.

Julie Hursthouse, project leader of the Let's Make It knitting group said; "It was wonderful and I'm so proud of the group for the way that they just rally around and make things happen, they don't moan and grumble, they just get on with it."

Molly Rennie, town and district councillor for Dorchester and chairman of the welfare committee at the refuge said: "It was just amazing, they're an amazing group of people to just sit there and knit so many chicks and sell them to people.

"We have used some of the money towards an outing over the half term for those at the refuge and some of the money we have used for freedom programme which will take place over the summer."

The committee will be working with Domestic Abuse Intervention Training (DAIT) to create the programme which Cllr Molly Rennie said was aimed at providing those who had been in abusive relationships with confidence and support.