Yorkshire towns miss lottery cash

Yorkshire’s industrial communities are being deprived of their fair share of lottery funding and missing millions of pounds, new figures reveal.

Four of the region’s towns have received less than the national average of £391 per person since the lottery started in 1995, research by the Industrial Communities Alliance has discovered.

Selby was revealed to be the fourth most underfunded industrial area in the UK in a league table of Alliance member councils.

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It has been awarded just £127 per person over the past 17 years – 68 per cent less than the national average. The shortfall means the area has potentially missed £21m, the Alliance said.

Selby District Council deputy leader Gillian Ivey said: “Lottery money should be targeted at the very best or most needed projects wherever they are rather than being spread thinly everywhere.

“But given the pressing need in Selby to invest in a new sports and leisure centre following the fire earlier this year it would be a great opportunity to test the Lottery’s commitment to supporting the most worthwhile projects across the whole country.

Coun Ivey added: “We would look forward to getting our fair share of the £21m that the Industrial Communities Alliance has identified.”

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The council has also been working with the Big Lottery Fund and the voluntary sector on projects to help three of the town’s most deprived areas, she added.

“We look forward to the possibility of good news on that front sometime next month,” she said.

Doncaster, Wakefield, Rotherham and Barnsley were also underfunded at £215, £291, £319 and £327 per person respectively.

The only industrial area in Yorkshire to have fared better than the national average was Sheffield, receiving £562 per person.

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North East Derbyshire ranked as the UK’s most underfunded area in a league table of the Alliance’s member councils.

It has been awarded just £88 per person – 77 per cent less than the national average. Chesterfield is also underfunded, having received only £225 per person.

Gateshead topped the table, having received nearly two and a half times the national average at £916, and Glasgow City was close behind, having been awarded £866 per person.

The Alliance, which campaigns on behalf of councils in industrial areas of England, Scotland and Wales, found the communities it represents received only about 60 per cent of the national average per head over the last five years.

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In its report, The Postcode Lottery, it estimates the cumulative loss of funding to the UK’s industrial communities has been about £200m a year, amounting to £3bn since the lottery began.

The report found inequalities have widened again after good progress towards a fairer distribution of funding in the early 2000s.

Now the Alliance is calling on the Government and lottery boards to take action to ensure a fair share of available funding is given to industrial communities, many of which are among the most deprived in the country.

Rotherham councillor Shaun Wright, chairman of the Alliance in Yorkshire and Humberside, said: “In these hard pressed times, when spending cuts often mean local facilities are under threat, this is Lottery money these communities cannot afford to lose.

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“We’ve just had the Olympics and Yorkshire and Humberside sportsmen and women have brought home a bagful of medals.

“I want to ensure every child in this region has access to decent sports facilities, in the cities, towns and villages. This won’t happen if lottery money is distributed unfairly.

“I’m calling upon the Government and lottery boards to take action to ensure all communities have a fair chance to get Lottery money.”