Carnmoney in the money!

The Carnmoney Hill Community Green Space project originally missed out on up to £50,000 in Lottery cash after a nail biting head to head with the Carryduff Community Playground project on Wednesday’s UTV Live programme.

However, now the competition has drawn to a close in Northern Ireland, the Carnmoney Hill Community Green Space project has been announced as the region’s highest runner-up and will also receive a Big Lottery Fund award. A total of four awards and £200,000 has gone to community organisations across Northern Ireland.

The Woodland Trust will use the lottery cash to regenerate an isolated car park in Carnmoney Hill which has been used as a bonfire site and dumping ground in the past.

The group is this week’s fourth and final People’s Millions winner in Northern Ireland. This year’s People’s Millions has now come to an end, with just under 350,000 votes cast across the UK during the competition. A total of 85 awards have been given out to projects and up to £4.2 million in Big Lottery funding has been up for grabs, in the competition where viewers decide who gets Lottery cash.

Each night this week two local projects have been showcased on ITV regional news in a head-to-head battle to secure public votes and a Big Lottery Fund award. This year awards were not only dished out to each night’s winning projects, but an additional bonus prize went to the runner up in each ITV region* that chalked up the most public votes.

This is the second year the Big Lottery Fund and ITV have teamed up to bring UK viewers the People’s Millions, giving the public a real say on where Lottery funding will go to benefit their community. Last year’s contest was a huge success with viewers across the UK casting votes to give 53 projects a share of over £2.6 million to make a difference in their communities. Up to £15 million in grants will be given out by the Big Lottery Fund under the three year public involvement initiative.