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   Home Page > Lottery News Articles > National Lottery funds: Are we missing out?

9th Feb 2006

http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk

Six years ago, the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington, Tom Brake, revealed more than 70 per cent of bids for National Lottery money from his constituency had been refused, compared with 50 per cent nationally.

Since then things have improved slightly. Out of 165 bids made to the Big Lottery Fund (BLF), the organisation which funds charity projects, the voluntary sector and health, education and the environment, 83 have been successful.

However, it has also emerged that Sutton borough had made the least amount of applications out of all the 33 London boroughs within the arts and heritage sectors.

And the area finished in the bottom three for its number of bids to gain money for charity and cash from the Millennium Commission, which funded buildings, environmental projects, and individual community schemes.

The figures disappointed Mr Brake, who told the Sutton Guardian: "Sutton gets a raw deal in relation to the lottery more than half of our applications are rejected.

"I am disappointed we have made no progress. If anything, we have gone backwards."

A spokesman for the BLF said each application was judged on its own merits.

Sue Bowers, the London manager for the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), said she would like to see more groups coming forward from the borough with bidding ideas and was unsure why they were not.

She said: "Perhaps it is a lack of awareness and the knowledge they can apply for funding."

Out of 10 applications made to HLF from Sutton, four have succeeded, for a total of £111,849, two have been withdrawn, three rejected and one, to make repairs to the roof and stonework of St Nicholas Church, is still in the system.

But Ms Bowers dismissed the idea that bids from Sutton are being ignored and said: "Absolutely not, we have a team who are happy to discuss ideas and we have been out in the borough ourselves to take part in workshops."

But compared to the neighbouring borough of Croydon, where 15 heritage projects have been rubber stamped and secured a total of £1,966,597, Sutton's figures seem fairly measly.

A spokesman for Sutton Council said it was difficult for the borough to meet Heritage Lottery Fund criteria as it was judged not to have high levels of deprivation.

He said: "We also have a comparatively low number of heritage sites and many of those have already been invested in. The HLF has told us Sutton is not a priority for their funding.

"Despite that, the borough has secured over £5million of funding from the National Lottery for a range of health, education and environmental schemes."

But Mr Brake would like to see a change in the way Sutton is judged and added: "There seems to be a perception that Sutton is a very affluent borough and does not need lottery funding, but there are very high levels of deprivation."

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