The Lottery vs Public Funding

How have we come to a point when public services, needed public services, truly innovative public services, are funded this way?

Eco-gardening? Look to the Lottery. Healthy, affordable food at a cyber-cafe? Look to the Lottery.

These are the kinds of projects that should be funded out of general taxation, not some sort of spin-the-wheel, X-factor-showdown, on ITV local news.

On Monday 13 November, The Barracks Lane Ecological Community Garden project in Oxford will go head to head with The Podsmead Neighbourhood Y-Pod Cafe project in Gloucestershire.

The Barracks Lane Ecological Community Garden project would use the award to build an ecological horticultural workshop space in a community garden. Project staff would teach local community members the skills they need to help build and maintain the eco-building workshop. The building would include compost toilets facilities and use solar electricity.

In Gloucestershire, the Podsmead Neighbourhood project would use the award to transform their former offices into a contemporary cyber-cafe. The Y-Pod Cafe would provide free internet access and serve healthy, affordable food. The project would also refurbish the current kitchen area into a wet art room.