'It could be you'

Now Big National Lottery Awards, in a bid to advertise the £25m they spend each week on good causes, is appealing to people in Oxfordshire to name their favourite lottery-funded projects. It has extended the deadline for nominations until February 19.

But for the next few years at least, if you are a charity or voluntary organisation seeking an award, the chances are getting stronger that: “It won’t be you.” This is because council spending cuts mean lottery funds are becoming increasingly squeezed as applications for funds increase.

Introducing the lottery 16 years ago, Mr Major pledged: “We will make no case-on-case reductions on conventional public spending programmes to take account of awards from the lottery. The awards from the lottery will not replace public expenditure.”

Last year, though, speaking on BBC Radio 4, he accused the Government of a “total breach of faith” for using lottery money to replace spending that many would expect to come from local councils.

Matters have not been helped either by the Government’s decision to allot £638m of Big funds to the the 2012 London Olympics, leaving less for claimants in the provinces, such as Oxfordshire.

Nationally, 12 per cent of Big Lottery funding in 2008-9 went to non-voluntary groups such as schools, health and local authorities — mainly for play areas, parks and open spaces, libraries and adult social care.

Alison Rowe, Big Lottery’s head of region for the south-east, told The Oxford Times: “The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery, and is committed to bringing genuine improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need. In the past 15 years, Big, and its predecessor bodies, have made over 8,000 awards totalling close to £506min the South East of England.”

And she defended the organisation from accusations that money was being diverted to causes that should rightfully be funded by the public purse. She said: “Lottery money supports the efforts of the voluntary and public sector and Big is committed to ensuring it is distinct from Government funding. In the last year, 88 per cent of Big funding went directly to voluntary organisations supporting health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK.”

In Oxfordshire, Big Lottery awards included £3.3m to the county council between 2005/6 and 2008/9 towards a hall and changing rooms at four schools: Blessed George Napier, Didcot Girls, Warriner, and Bartholomew.

Less controversially, perhaps, the county council also received a grant of £591,000 towards the refurbishment of the Coach House Education Centre at the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock, between 2005/06 and 2006/07.

South Oxfordshire received £219,000 in Big grants in 2008/9 for a new skateboard park in Berinsfield; a multi-use games area and tennis court at Ladygrove Park, Didcot, another multi-use games area in Chinnor; a new play area in Freeman’s Meadow, Henley; and playground refurbishments and extensions in Beckley, Sonning Common and South Moreton.

West Oxfordshire recently received £200,000 from Big to install two play areas and to provide free outdoor play sessions run by qualified playworkers The Big Lottery Fund, which now spends about half of all lottery money, emerged from Government reforms in the National Lottery Act of 2005. It replaced three previous distributors: the Community Fund, the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. One of its avowed intents, according to the Department for Culture Media and Sport, is to make the lottery “responsive to people’s priorities and ensure that lottery money goes efficiently to good causes.”

But who can blame the Government and councils for obtaining money from wherever they can? Big Lottery funding is occurring against a background of changing public attitudes. According to the latest British Social Attitudes report, published this month by the National Centre for Social Research, after ten years of rising public spending, and rising taxes, most of us would now like to see a pause. On the other hand, seven out of ten of us would like to see more money for schools — a conundrum leading inevitably to a funding gap.

To carp on, though, would be churlish. After all, over the years Oxfordshire has had much to be grateful for from the lottery. And some Oxfordshire projects must surely be in with a chance of being nominated as National Lottery Project of the Year Award.

National Lottery says it wants to hear about any lottery-funded projects that have “had a positive impact on the local area, made a real difference to people’s lives or anyone who is personally involved in transforming their community with help of lottery funding”.

Examples that immediately spring to mind include Oxford Preservation Society’s transformation of Oxford Castle and of course the new and improved Ashmolean Museum.

Debbie Dance, of Oxford Preseration Society said: “We achieved a £4.8m lottery grant, which was the making of the whole castle project, which, in turn, has promoted Oxford on the town, as opposed to gown side.

“A whole new vibrant and spectacular area has been made. It’s useful for schools’ history projects and helps people realise what a very rich history we have. It marries up the past and present and is an amazing success.”

And over at Britain’s oldest museum, the Ashmolean, which received £15m from the lottery, spokesman Susie Gault said: “The £15m from the lottery was the seed funding for our £61m redevelopment. It kickstarted the whole project. With it, we were able to go out and raise more money; without it we would have been in difficulty.

“Since we reopened, thousands have visited the museum, and the whole project has magnified Oxford’s draw as a cultural centre, and creating a public face for the university.

“The idea was to broaden the access to our collections for the widest possible audience.

“And that has been achieved successfully, thanks largely to the lottery.”

All in all, whatever you think about some of the projects funded by the lottery, it still “could be you” who will become a millionaire this week — and one way and another voluntary organisations are still benefiting.