COUNCIL LEADER SUPPORTS LOTTERY CHANGES WHICH COULD SIGNAL FUNDING BOOST FOR CITY (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

COUNCIL LEADER SUPPORTS LOTTERY CHANGES WHICH COULD SIGNAL FUNDING BOOST FOR CITY

August 24, 2010 2:48 PM

Councillor Andrew Waller

Changes proposed by the Government to the way Lottery money is handed out could mean more funding coming to York, the Leader of the Council said today.

Until 1998 arts, heritage and sport each received a 20% share of lottery funding but this was reduced to 16.66% in order to fund health, education and environment projects through the Big Lottery Fund.

The Coalition Government have recently released proposals to increase funding shares for art, heritage and sport back to 20% each and focus Big Lottery Fund spending on the voluntary and community sector, rather than it being used to fund statutory projects that should be funded by Government.

The changes would mean around £50m a year extra for arts, heritage and sport. Liberal Democrat Leader of City of York Council, Councillor Andrew Waller said he thought the changes would increase the chances of York receiving Lottery funding.

He said, "The Big Lottery Fund was being diverted to fund Minister's pet projects that should have been funded by the Government at the expense of the projects the Lottery was originally designed to help. The amount of money available through the Lottery has also been reduced by the raid on funding to pay for the 2012 Olympics. "

"Restoring the share of funding to 20% for art, heritage and sport and focusing the Big Lottery Fund on voluntary and community projects will mean more opportunities for cities like York to bid for funding."

Councillor Waller said the increase in heritage funding would be an especially good opportunity for the city. He said, "York has a fantastic array of projects based on our city's heritage that will relish the opportunity to bid for increased Heritage Lottery funding."

"York is a city that is famous for its history but the limited funding that has been available in the past has meant there have been fewer opportunities for projects to build on that success."

"This is a very welcome announcement by the Government and it shows that the coalition is committed to scaling back Government domination of funding like this and allowing locally run projects to benefit."

It is proposed that the changes will be phased in with the shares for art, heritage and sport increasing to 18% in April 2011 and then 20% in April 2012.