Bradford businesswoman Judith Donovan will be batting for her city after being chosen to serve on the national Millennium Commission.

Mrs Donovan, chairman of direct marketing firm JDA, said she was "dead chuffed" to be joining the elite band of people managing lottery money which goes into community projects.

Millions of pounds of lottery cash is managed by five funding bodies dealing with the arts, charities, sport, heritage and Millennium projects.

Mrs Donovan's appointment has earned her a new nickname, used by her husband John at the couple's Heaton Grove home.

"He calls me Madam Commissioner," she confessed.

"Bradford has had a disproportionately low amount of money from the funds the National Lottery gives to the five funding bodies and I shall be batting for the district when it is appropriate and making a case for good causes from Yorkshire."

The Millennium Commission has already awarded most of its cash, which consists of a fifth of the National Lottery Total. More than £2 million has been given to support Bradford's National Millennium Faith Experience being built in the old post office in Forster Square. More than £1 million has also been donated towards the cost of the Thornbury Centre.

Mrs Donovan, the first female president of Bradford's Chamber of Commerce in its 148-year history, will be involved in making sure schemes which have already been awarded cash carry out the work in line with the Millennium Commission's guidelines.

She said: "I had a call just before Christmas to ask if I was interested in joining the Millennium Commission, which came out of the blue, and I said I was. Then there was a letter from Downing Street to say I had been appointed."

Mrs Donovan is expected to keep her appointment for three years. She will join children's TV presenter Floella Benjamin on the Commission, Downing Street said yesterday. Ms Benjamin, a former presenter of Play School, will remain on the commission until the end of the year.

As well as her acting career, she is also a governor of the National Film and Television School and of the Commonwealth Institute.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.