Ludlow councillor dismayed by no community lottery

The councillor behind plans for a community lottery which was never adopted says he is disappointed with the decision.

Councillor Andy Boddington, for Ludlow, says he has been left disappointed after Shropshire Council decided not to take on the idea.

Councillor Boddington said it would help raise funds for worthy causes in the area, but Shropshire Council said it was worried about promoting problem gambling and doubted its potential success.

But Councillor Boddington said: “Shropshire Council has rejected the idea of a community lottery for our county.

“The idea, which I proposed in December 2017, was to create a county-wide lottery framework to allow small organisations such as village halls to sell lottery tickets.

“Although the council’s deputy leader claimed then that the council was already looking at a scheme, it is only now that we have the council’s view a lottery is not on.

“I don’t buy its reasons for rejection – that it will divert money from other causes and that it will encourage gambling.

“The real reason is that it will not generate an income stream for the council and the council is not going to help communities unless it can make a profit.

“Shropshire Council has become obsessed with major building and investment schemes in the north of the county and has left rural communities behind.

“The council says it will displace money from other voluntary fundraisers. But all the evidence is that community lotteries allow new funding to be raised – each ticket sold is for a specific cause such as a village hall or scout troop.

“The council also says it is concerned about its position in promoting gambling.

“That is an extraordinarily high moral stance for a council that has gambled more than £50 million on shopping centres and now allows its tenants sell Lotto tickets and booze.

“It’s a surprising high moral stance from the Conservatives, the party that in 1994 gave us the National Lottery – which has since been used to plug gaps in public funding.”

He added: “Deputy leader Steve Charmley says that income from community drops off after the first year. Although there is always a small drop after the initial rush of enthusiasm, I haven’t seen any data that suggests that this makes community lotteries unviable – they are self-funding through administration fees.

“The real reason, as the deputy leader admits, is that a scheme like this doesn’t make a penny for Shropshire Council. It is there for the benefit of the community.

“It is a way of helping communities help themselves. But Shropshire Council has never done that.

“Its resilience agenda [helping communities help themselves] has died off. It has removed community support officers from across the county.

“It charges our pioneering Ludlow Young Health project £2,000 a year to use the youth centre because it is not prepared to contribute to young people’s mental health and wellbeing. It doesn’t make a profit.”