Lottery dishes out £5million

LOTTERY funding totalling almost £5million was handed to groups in south Warwickshire in 2017, new figures have revealed.

Stratford-on-Avon district banked £1million, while neighbouring Warwick district was handed £3.9million.

Among the 27 groups in Stratford to benefit from money generated from lottery tickets sales were Arrow Village Hall, which got £6,000 to replace the heating system which would improve the building for use in the winter months and The Priors School, which was given £10,000 to improve the play equipment to encourage the children to take part in exercise.

In Warwick, there were 35 beneficiaries, including the Warwickshire Association of Youth Club which got £271,522 to provide further youth club activities and tailored one to one mentoring support to young people aged ten to 19 years old.

Each recipient of a grant now has the chance to win an extra £5,000 in the National Lottery Awards.

People can nominate a local project by tweeting @LottoGoodCauses or by calling 0207 293 3329. Entries must be received by midnight on 6th April.

The categories are arts, education, environment, health, heritage, sport, and voluntary/charity.

Last year, UK-wide running network, parkrun, won Best Sport Project for its National Lottery funded programme supporting visually impaired runners.

Chris Jones, one of the founders of parkrun, which has regular events in Stratford and Leamington, said: “Since winning, we’ve seen an increase in numbers of people living with sight loss participating at parkrun.

"Perhaps more importantly, we’ve seen a transformation in self-confidence for individuals who have found that they can achieve more than they ever thought possible.”