Just a fraction of the millions spent on Lottery tickets in Bradford comes back to the district's good causes, it has been revealed.

Under rules set for operators Camelot, 28p out of every £1 ticket goes to the Government to be handed out to good causes.

But parts of the high-spending Bradford district have only received six per cent of its money back.

In Bradford South, people have paid out £39.2 million on tickets in five years - but only £2.3 million has flowed back into the district in the form of grants to good causes.

In Shipley, only £1.9 million has been won in grants after punters spent a total of £28.7 million.

And in Keighley - the highest spending part of the district -players gambled a massive £69 million while the area only scooped £6.7 million for its good causes.

Today Gerry Sutcliffe, Labour MP for Bradford South described the figures as staggering.

"It's good that Bradford people are contributing to good causes, but we now need to see some of that money back in our coffers," he said.

"We always suspected this would happen - especially when large amounts were being spent on Churchill's papers and the Royal Opera House in London -- neither of which benefited people in Bradford.

"For that level of spending, we ought to be getting a better distribution of lottery funds and I'll be pressing to make sure that happens."

Anthony Clipsom, of the Bradford Council for Voluntary Services, an expert on voluntary sector funding, said: "I would like to see comparable figures for Central London. I bet they get more spent there than was paid out on tickets.

"This is disappointing. I think we do well on smaller scale community projects but we don't have the big projects, which bump the average up. Hopefully we can take action with the council to try to increase our strike rate."

A spokesman for lottery operator Camelot stressed that it was not responsible for distributing grants.

A spokesman for the Yorkshire and Humberside Charities Board said that the Bradford local authority area had received £30.22 per head of population from the Charities Board, which is one of six distributors.

The others are the Sports Council, Arts Council, Heritage Fund, Millennium Awards and Awards for All.

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