uk lottery draw

It is very easy to forget that Britain has territories outside the British Isles but a recent report has shown that even the British National Lottery has influence around the world.

The UK lottery draw supports many heritage projects around Britain and the Heritage Lottery Fund has so far provided around £4.5 billion to deserving causes. Now the London office of the British Virgin Islands has asked the fund for help in maintaining their heritage sites.

The British Virgin Islands consider themselves as part of the United Kingdom and are indeed have been a British sovereign territory since 1672. The islands are sited towards the south of the Caribbean in the chain that includes St Kitts and Nevis, Guadeloupe, Antigua and Barbuda and Puerta Rico. The main islands in the BVI are Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Jost Van Dyke and Anegada with the capital, Road Town, sited on Tortola. There are in fact around sixty islands in the group and in total they have a population of around 22,000. Curiously the currency is the US dollar.

Unsurprisingly one of the main industries of this tropical paradise is tourism. In 2006 around 825,603 people visited the territory, many of these arrived on cruise ships. Stories of pirates and slavery abound and there is a good collection of historic sites for visitors to see including a copper mine, museums, old plantation estates, forts, burial sites, churches and national parks.

It is these tourist destinations the BVI authorities would like to update with money from the UK lottery draw. The Director of the London office, Kedrick Malone, is hopeful the application will be successful and the BVI will be the first overseas territory to access lottery money.

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On the 27 July 2012 the London Olympics will commence. With one year to go the progress is impressive.

With the help of £2.2 billion from the British National Lottery, several of the essential venues are already completed. Construction of the main Olympic Stadium has been finished with the laying of the last square of turf and the construction of the Basketball Arena, the Handball Arena, the Velodrome, the Aquatics Centre and the Lee Valley White Water Centre has also been finished.

Also completed is the main railway station specific to the venues and the press and broadcast centres are also finished.

The development was designed with a view to long-term sustainability for the local community and, with this in mind, three quarters of the promised residential development on the area is structurally complete. Nearby the Chobham Academy school is almost structurally complete too.

About £5 billion of contracts related to the Olympic Games have been awarded to British businesses and 22,000 schools are involved in related initiatives. British companies built the entire Olympic stadium and the same can be said for 98% of the other facilities.

Over the months before the Olympic flame is lit, heralding the start of the 2012 Games, several test events will be held at the venues to ensure they are fit for their main purpose. Some have already happened with the streets of London closing on the 30 May for a successful trial of the marathon course. The white Basketball Arena will host the London International Basketball Invitational between the 16 and 21 August this year.

It has been decided not to hold the British athletics trials in the 80,000 seat Olympic stadium for logistic reasons but the venue has been busy already: the British Universities athletics championships were held there in May, as was the London Disability Grand Prix for paralympic athletes.

After much concern about the cost of the construction, it is at last good to see that everything is well on schedule. The British National Lottery money was obviously well spent.

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Stef Collins has been star of women’s basketball in New York State for some years but for the 2012 Olympic Games in London she hopes to play for Great Britain, following a training camp provided by the British National Lottery.

The reason she can play for Great Britain and take advantage of the generosity of the British National Lottery is that Stef (now 28 years old) was born in Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire. She moved to America and played basketball for Odessa-Montour high school and St. Bonaventure University.

The places on the squad are not yet finalized but it seems pretty certain she will play for the British team: a fact that is exciting both for British ambitions and for her fans in New York. 2012 will be the first time a British team has appeared at the Olympics since women’s basketball was included in 1976. The British Basketball Federation was only formed in 2006 specifically for the build up to the London Olympic Games.

Stef Collins has in fact been with the British team since that start in 2006 and they made their mark last month by making it to the last twelve of the EuroBasket Women’s Championships in Poland.

Stef’s career has always moved between the USA and Britain as she played for a time in the Rhondda Rebels team in Wales before moving to the University of Wales at Cardiff to get a master’s degree and play basketball.

Damian Jennings, an assistant coach on the Great Britain team marks Stef down as a natural leader so it all looks good for British hopes.

Once again the British National Lottery helps Olympic hopefuls get to the Games.

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The UK lottery draw finances some worthwhile projects and one of the latest to get support from lottery funds is a scheme called Very Important Kids.

Sadly as many as 80 000 children may be suffering from severe depression. The difference between a child simply playing up and a more worrying condition is hard to detect even for professionals so it is a difficult subject to tackle.

The Very Important Kids programme is run by the YoungMinds charity and is intended to improve the facilities for young people with mental health issues. Now the UK lottery draw has provided funding, nine regional workers can be employed to help the three-year scheme both locally and nationally.

Money is also available now for transport, campaigns, activities and other resources.

Twenty-seven young people have been recruited to campaign around the country to make their peers aware of the project and that help is available. They get involved in media projects and even public speaking engagements.

Bill Badham of YoungMinds says, “We aim to give our young people the strength to make changes to services locally and policy nationally.”

The recent mental health strategy produced by the Government has put young people to the fore so something is being done right!

To find out more about the project, go to the Very Important Kids website.

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The success of the movie The Kings Speech has reflected on the UK lottery draw too.

One of the biggest challenges facing moviemakers is financing. The makers of the now hit film about the struggles of King George VI to over come his speech impediment had similar problems.

The UK Film Council uses UK lottery draw funds to encourage the British film industry and so it was to this body that the producers of The Kings Speech went to find money for their project. They were rewarded with £1 million to help with the early stages of the production.

The waterfall of awards, including four Oscars, awarded to the film has vindicated this faith in the movie. It goes beyond that however; by February the worldwide takings for the film exceeded $245 million (£152 million), which means the original investment will be paid plus substantial profits.

Surprisingly after this success the UK Film Council has been disbanded under new government plans to slim down bureaucracy. However their responsibilities have been taken up by another body, the British Film Institute, and the funding increased by sixty percent so the future looks good for the British film industry.

Obviously there was funding for The Kings Speech other than that from the UK lottery draw. £10 million came from a consortium of private investors and £480 000 from the European Media Fund.

The success is seen as a vindication of public film investment so, when you next buy your UK lottery draw tickets, you can reflect that you had a part in one of the most successful movies of recent times.

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With one year to go until the 2012 London Olympics, the UK lottery draw is helping to encourage young people in Britain to join in with sport.

A national scheme to encourage the playing of sport has a total fund available of £32 million, all of which has come from UK lottery draw funds. The project is intended to take advantage of the interest in sport expected as enthusiasm for the Olympics grows.

In the north east of England, Sportivate has been allocated £650 000 of the money to encourage youngsters aged between 14 and 25 who never participate in a sport to try at least one activity. Athletics, dancing and swimming are among the activities included.

With the concern about the lack of activity by young people now, this initiative and the funding from the UK lottery draw is well timed.

See more about the Sportivate scheme on the SunderlandEcho.com site.

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I wonder how many people think lottery winners end up wasting their winnings?

Peter Lavery of Belfast won £10.2 in the British National Lottery in 1996. Since that time this former bus driver has set up several businesses and has raised money for charities.

His latest project is to found Belfast’s first whiskey distillery for 100 years. Mr. Lavery’s Belfast Distillery Company already produces Danny Boy whiskey outside the city but is now looking at building a new building in the city itself.

Cheers to Mr. Lavery and the British National Lottery.

Read more about this great idea on the Belfast Telegraph website.

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There are few monuments in the world that are perhaps more recognizable than Stonehenge.

This prehistoric icon is visited by millions of people every year who come and wonder at the mysteries of this amazing site. And therein lies the problem.

The existing facilities at the monument are unable to cope with such huge numbers of visitors and need upgrading.

The British National Lottery, through the Heritage Lottery Fund, is providing £10 million to help with a complete redesign of the visitor experience.

The chair of English Heritage (who run the site) said, “We are tremendously grateful for this generous grant. Not only does it help to narrow the funding gap for the project considerably, it also sends out a message of confidence about the transformational benefits that the project will bring – to tourism, local economy, and the conservation and public enjoyment of Stonehenge and its landscape.”

The problem with Stonehenge is that it is not just the monument itself that is archeologically important but also the whole landscape surrounding it. The pressure of so many visitors is having its toll on the environment.

The new proposals take the crowds away from Stonehenge to a new visitor centre from where they will be transported in a special vehicle to the site.

In this way the British National Lottery is once more preserving an important part of ancient history.

Find out more about the proposed changes to Stonehenge on the English Heritage website.

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The UK lottery draw promotes many good causes throughout the United Kingdom via its Heritage Lottery Fund. This fund has financed projects keeping alive British history and heritage to the sum of £4.5 billion to date.

One such project to receive support from the UK lottery draw is The Hampshire Coppice Craftsmen’s Group, formed in 2003.

This organization supports woodsmen in the county of Hampshire and promotes the benefits and awareness of coppice management.

This ancient craft involves cultivating trees in a special way. Mature trees, when cut at their base, will sprout a series of narrow multiple stems. The term ‘coppice’ comes from the French ‘couper’ (to cut) and the thin stems produced from coppicing can be used in many ways. This method of woodland management is completely sustainable as the rods and poles cut from each tree stump will regrow time after time.

Hazel trees are the favourite for the production of poles. Track ways have been discovered leading across the boggy ground of the Somerset Levels that date from 5000 years ago. These were surfaced with hurdles made from oak, alder and hazel coppice poles so we know the skill was around in prehistoric times.

Indeed coppicing was important until the last century, producing essential items such as sheep hurdles, spars and liggers. Hurdles are screens of coppice poles lashed together and are often used today for garden fences and screens. Liggers are twisted stems used in thatching to hold the thatch reeds in place on the roof. Coppice poles would also be used in the manufacture of barrels and packing crates as well as for firing kilns and bread ovens. They would also be used for the production of charcoal.

Modern craftsmen still use the poles for these traditional uses but are increasingly finding new uses for them. The poles are being used for barbecue charcoal, in preventing erosion to river banks and for plant supports such as bean poles.

Indeed a few weeks ago it was National Beanpole Week, designed to raise awareness of the superior quality of home grown beanpoles over the competition.

The practice of coppicing has a strong environmental role too. When woodlands are coppiced, sunlight streams through the tree canopy, creating a favourable environment for many woodland plants and insects, particularly butterflies.

The decline in coppicing over the years has lead to a reduction in many woodland species and increased pollution as we import these goods from overseas. The Hampshire Coppice Craftsmen Group is dedicated to recreate the skills involved and create more rural jobs as well as saving important habitats.

The money from the UK lottery draw helps to keep this skill alive but what is really needed is for more people to buy coppiced pole products. Apart from being better for the environment, these products are generally better quality.

Clearly we all need to support this truly sustainable way of life.

To find out more about The Hampshire Coppice Craftsmen’s Group,  please go to their website at www.HampshireCoppice.org.uk

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There is still over a year until the 2012 Summer Olympic Games take place, but both London and the British National Lottery are gearing up for this special event. London is currently in the midst of preparations for when they host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, while the National Lottery is working on raising £2.2 billion for the events.

The proceeds from the National Lottery will help fund five new sports facilities for the 2012 Olympic Games including Olympic Stadium, Handball Arena, Hockey Centre, VeloPark and the Aquatics Centre. The highlight of the sports facilities will no doubt be the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium, which will host the track and field events, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. Work on Olympic Stadium began in the spring of 2008, and should be finished in 2011. In fact, Olympic officials are ready to begin testing the facilities by the summer of 2011.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogue is very pleased with the progress of Olympic Stadium and the other facilities as he said, “I am in no doubt that in 2012, we will see a great Games that will make a difference to us all.”

All of the facilities will be built in the Queen Olympic Park district of London, and the area will house athletes in addition to the aforementioned stadiums. London’s mayor Boris Johnson is very excited about the developments as he said, “Not since Georgian England has London seen such an ambitious and comprehensive vision for a new district.” As far as what is to become of the area once the Olympic Games are over with, plans are in the works for homes, businesses, leisure facilities and parks.

Going back to the £2.2 billion that is being raised for these projects, £750 million of the money will come from special lottery games that the National Lottery is holding. There will be 10 Scratch Card Olympic Games listed under the special games section, which include Blazing 7’s, Monster Money, Double Red Hot 7, Mystic Dog, Money Spider, Triple Cash, Royal 7’s, Lucky 7’s, Super 7’s and Winner’s Luck. In addition to the Scratch Card Olympic Games, there will also be 34 Interactive Instant Win Olympic Games. The “good cause” portion of revenue from all of these games will go towards the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (OLDF).

The remaining £1.45 billion that’s set to be donated towards the 2012 Olympic Games will come from the main National Lottery drawings. Of course, donating money to a charitable cause is nothing new for the National Lottery because the organization has donated over £24 billion since beginning operation in 1994. 28% of the money from every ticket sale goes towards charity, while 50% goes towards funding the jackpot drawings.

Perhaps this is a big reason why the National Lottery offers some of the biggest jackpots out of any lottery in the world. The EuroMillions, which is under the same umbrella as the National Lottery, once paid out a £134 million jackpot! This lottery has offered several other lotteries worth over £100 million too.

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