There is obviously something wrong with the system of dispensing National Lottery grants, given figures which show that most parts of the Bradford district have received a mere fraction of the money they have spent.

It is clear that charitable giving is not the prime motivation in buying a ticket. Most people dream of winning a life-transforming jackpot. But for many it helps to ease any pangs of guilt they might feel about gambling to know that a large proportion of the money will go to good causes - and that hopefully some of those good causes will be close to home.

There is a whole issue in what amount of money raised is spent on administration, but even minus that sum there is still a lot left over for the various good causes the Lottery was set up to help. What Gerry Sutcliffe MP is rightly highlighting is that given the amount spent in this district, very little seems to be coming back into the community.

It is hard to tell whether that is because of any bias against the district, because there are fewer good causes, or because fewer viable applications are put forward.

If the last is the case, what is being done to generate more applications from this area? It is surely part of the Lottery organisers' remit to see that there is a proper spread of applications across the country. Perhaps some of the money should be spent on a high-profile initiative to promote applications from Bradford and district letting people know there is plenty of money to be had.

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