Power to the people’s reps

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The remarks of Richard Caborn, sports minister, at Lottery Monitor’s annual conference, prompted one southeast local authority funding officer to contribute this argument to the debate on the Lottery funding review

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So Tessa Jowell is looking for creative, radical, innovative ideas to shape the future of the Lottery. Well how about this one: disengage from the ‘community’, cut the consultation façade and give the money to local authorities to distribute.
I hear the splutters of outrage across the country. What’s the cliché we’re supposed all to adhere to about the Lottery? It’s not ‘public money’, it’s ‘civic money’. Codswallop. The average Lottery punter frankly doesn’t give a damn as to where the money goes to if it doesn’t end up in his or her back pocket. This is only an educated guess but I bet that most of the people who are interested in the good causes side of the Lottery don’t actually play the game. More than likely, they give direct to a charity such as Oxfam (me included). Coupled with this you have a chunk of society who feels disinclined to apply for help, such as large sections of the Muslim or Christian community, because of the elements of gambling. Right or wrong about players’ interest, surely the ‘community’ should decide on the money’s final resting place? And how do we ‘liberate’ our communities? By that spiritually uplifting tool of ‘consultation’, of course. What does ‘consultation’ mean to your Lottery distributor? A few completed questionnaires from some like-minded interested parties and some selective letters of support. For every negative there’s a positive, of course, and by playing the ‘consultation’ game we can all show ‘need’: we ‘need’ a new community centre, we ‘need’ a new play-area, we ‘need’ a new multi-sports play-area. Trouble is the ‘we’ is, in the main, those not at the cutting edge of social inclusion, those who can be galvanised into taking part in the consultation process. If you think I’m wrong, why are black and ethnic minorities groups still under-provided for in Lottery funding?

Putting aside the endless hours wasted by ‘consultation’, there is simply no need for it. District Councils, County Councils, Unitary Authorities all have hundreds, thousands of officers who know where Lottery monies are needed most. It’s their job, for goodness sake. Social workers, health workers, home-lessness officers, debt advisors, voluntary sector link officers all know where the problems lie at grass-roots level and all are crying out for funding. On top of that you’ve got Lottery Officers and External Funding Officers able to articulate communities’ needs in application forms. You may say it’s patronising for a funding officer to fill in an application form on behalf of an organisation, but if semantic knowledge gets the required result for a previously excluded group – who cares!
So let’s get the rallying cry going for a large piece of good old-fashioned cor-poratism, a slice of the nanny state. Each ward, and parish in a local authority has a Member who purports to represent his or her community. Get 20% of the population to vote for him and her and you’re doing well. Now see the democratic masses energise when you tell them that your representative and his fellow Members and officers have potentially £40 million (the amount our county has obtained since the Lottery started) to bid for and distribute in the next seven years. (Incidentally, has anyone noticed how the local education authorities’ allocation of NOF Sport and PE in Schools seems to have passed off without a glitch or a murmur of discontent?) And unlike the unelected Lottery distributors, you’ve a chance to kick them out every four years. Don’t like them spending £10m of Lottery money on a healthy living centre? Vote ‘em out! Unconvinced funding is coming to the small voluntary groups? Vote ‘em out! Not supporting the arts? Vote ‘em out! Coupling the Lottery with local democracy – now, that is a radical idea.