- Area:
- Wales
- Programme:
- The Peoples Millions
- Release date:
- 27 11 2007
The ‘Calon Lan’ (Pure Heart) project in Rhondda Cynon Taff are the toast of the town today after winning a £49,100 slice of good cause cash from the Big Lottery Fund’s regional People’s Millions contest.
ITV Wales’ viewers voted for the project to win the award after a nail biting head-to-head contest for community votes screened on Monday on ITV Wales’ regional news.
Bryncynon Community Revival Strategy Ltd won the hearts – and bigger slice of the public vote – after viewers tuned in to find out what the ‘Calon Lan’ (Pure Heart) project can do with the funding. With the money, the project aims to provide a garden of rememberance for the community and local people who have lost loved one’s.
It will contain sculptures and art work in the grounds of the Big Lottery funded Healthy Living Centre (HLC) at Bryncynon, Rhondda Cynon Taff. The project also includes the provision of art workshop sessions that will lead to the design and construction of art to be displayed.
Each night between November 26 and 29, two projects from Wales are being showcased on ITV Wales’ regional news in a head-to-head battle to secure the most public votes and win a Big Lottery Fund award of up to £80,000.
Voting telephone numbers will be broadcast during the programme and will also be available on the Big Lottery Fund’s website from 9am each day, www.biglotteryfund.org.uk , along with a list of the nightly winners. Voting numbers will also be in the Daily Mirror on the day of voting.
At the end of the competition there is also an additional bonus award of up to £80,000 for the runner-up with the most votes with that winner confirmed on November 30.
Huw Vaughan Thomas, Big Lottery Fund Wales Chair, said: “I am delighted this BIG Lottery Fund money is going to a local project for which the public have expressed their enthusiastic support. This is great news for the area and our good cause cash is already making its way to the winning project. This project can now become a reality and benefit the community for years to come. Throughout this week many more groups will have cause for celebration in this exciting competition that puts Lottery spending in the hands of the voting public.”
Elis Owen, Managing Director and Controller of Programmes for ITV Wales: “One of our greatest strengths is our ability as a broadcaster to connect with local people about community issues. This year our ground-breaking regional news programme is again asking the public to decide which local community projects most deserve Lottery support and with the biggest regional awards to date up for grabs, the People’s Millions is sure to have a lasting impact.”
The competition rolls on tonight, Tuesday November 27 when the Holywell Circular Footpath Route project from Holywell, Flintshire, will be competing against the Partneriaeth Dolgellau Partnership in Dolgellau, Gwynedd.
The Holywell Circular Footpath Route project, run by St Beunos Walk Group, aims to enhance and improve the accessibility of footpath routes within Holywell, providing the local community and tourists with greener, cleaner and safer access to the environment, leisure and heritage spots along a 5km route.
The Partneriaeth Dolgellau Partnership project, run by Partneriaeth Dolgellau Cyf, aims to provide new facilities in the town's park to offer children, young people and the wider community with further recreational opportunities. The process of developing the project through cross community working is also seen as a key part of raising people's confidence and skill levels in the Dolgellau area.
It will be a North vs South battle on the night of Wednesday, November 28, as the EYST Urban Fix Up Project from Swansea go head to head against the Gladstone Refurbishment/Regeneration project in Hawarden, Flintshire.
The EYST Urban Fix Up Project will allow Ethnic Youth Support Team in Swansea to upgrade the youth drop-in centre whilst training young people in environmentally sound construction skills. The project will take place over 6-months and will train 12 young people and involve 100 members as volunteers.
Gladstone Refurbishment/Regeneration project, will allow the Clwyd Area Scout Council to upgrade a scouting centre for the benefit of the local community and visiting scout groups in North East Wales, allowing opportunities to enjoy outdoor pursuits in a safe, comfortable and controlled environment.
The People’s Millions competition, in its third year, is running across 18 ITV regions*, with a total of 90 awards UK wide and up to £7.8 million of Big Lottery funding in the hands of the voting public.
Over the last two years the People’s Millions regional awards contest has given £7.2m to 139 UK good causes and 350,000 people have voted for their favourite project.
Telephone voting numbers – as with previous years, ITV and the Big Lottery Fund will use a non-premium national rate telephone number. ITV and BIG do not make a profit from the voting telephone numbers.
The week following the regional Peoples’ Millions TV contest, the BIG Lottery Fund and ITV1 plan to screen on consecutive nights the People’s £50 million Lottery Giveaway in which four projects of national importance will compete for the public vote to win an unprecedented £50 million award from the Fund.
Further information
Big Lottery Fund Press Officer- Oswyn Hughes: 02920 678 207
Out of Hours contact: 07760 171 431
ITV Press Contact: Sally Holmes on 08448 810 202
Full details of Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.
Notes to Editors
ITV broadcast regions in the People’s Millions:
ITV Anglia (East), ITV Anglia (West), ITV Border, ITV Central (East), ITV Central (West), ITV Granada, ITV London, ITV Meridian (South), ITV Meridian (South East), ITV Thames Valley, ITV Tyne Tees, ITV Wales, ITV West, ITV West Country, ITV Yorkshire, STV Central, STV North, UTV
- 90 awards are up for grabs across the UK – four winners plus one bonus award in each of the 18 ITV regions.
- The aim of the People’s Millions contest, which launched in 2005, has been to fund projects that improve the quality of life of local communities through transforming the local environment.
- Calls to the voting numbers will be charged at the standard national rate. Call charges from a BT landline will cost less than 10 pence, calls from other providers and from mobiles will vary, and could be higher. Callers are advised to check with their provider to be certain of the cost. No profit will be made from the phone-in by either ITV or Big Lottery Fund.
- Voting lines will open from 9.00am on the morning of broadcast until midnight the same day. The telephone numbers for each project will be placed on the Big Lottery Fund website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/peoplesmillions from 9.00 am on the day of broadcast when voting lines open.
- The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
- Telephone voting numbers – As with previous years, ITV and the Big Lottery Fund will use a low cost non-premium rate telephone number. ITV and BIG do not make a profit from the voting telephone numbers.
- The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004.
- On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money.
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