Wildlife lovers are celebrating a £119,778 funding boost to help restore a Poole heath devastated by an arson attack last year.

The SITA Trust has handed over the funds to Dorset Wildlife Trust, which has already raised more than £50,000 in a public appeal to help reinstate Upton Heath.

One third of the precious heathland was destroyed in last summer’s blaze which killed rare wildlife, reptiles and birds, and the plants they depend upon.