- Area:
- Wales
- Programme:
- The Peoples Millions
- Release date:
- 29 11 2007
As the competition rolls on, The EYST Urban Fix Up Project in Swansea are the toast of the town today after winning a £49,700 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 Wednesday on ITV Wales regional news.
Ethnic Youth Support Team won the hearts – and bigger slice of the public vote – after viewers tuned in to find out what the EYST Urban Fix Up Project can do with the funding. The project will now splash the cash on upgrading a youth drop-in centre in the city 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.
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.
Huw Vaughan Thomas, Big Lottery Fund Wales Chair, said: “Since the launch of People’s Millions in 2005, nearly £380,000 has been awarded to eight projects in Wales. This year’s competition is proving to be bigger and better. The voting public have already done their bit to ensure many excellent community projects can be brought to life by helping them secure the Lottery cash. But it’s still not over for those that didn’t quite make it. They’ve still got a second chance, as they wait to see if they will win a bonus award at the end the week as the region’s best runner up.”
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 final night of competition is tonight, Thursday November 29, when the Aber Valley Water Play Feature Phase 2 project in Caerphilly will front up to the Disability Eco-Project in the neighbouring county of Blaenau Gwent.
However, all is not lost for the projects knocked out in the initial stages. 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.
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.
- Key People’s Millions date for forward planning diaries:
26 - 30 November 2007: People's Millions competition televised on ITV
- Since the launch of People’s Millions in 2005, the aim of the contest has been to fund projects that improve the quality of life of local communities through transforming the local environment. This year projects that provide opportunities or facilities for enjoying the local environment have also been added to the funding criteria.
- 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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