Agenda item

The Redditch Partnership Manager presented the Community Lottery update and explained that this was the regular 6-monthly update.

During the presentation of this item the following was highlighted for Members’ consideration:

·       The Community Lottery was established in 2019 as a mechanism for community groups to raise funds for themselves. It was facilitated by an External Lottery Manager (ELM), Gatherwell Ltd. who delivered the online Lottery on the Council’s behalf.

·       The Lottery took place every Saturday and the jackpot was a prize of £25,000 which was underwritten through the ELM contract.

·       For each pound spent on the Lottery the following was allocated:

o   50% to Good Causes

o   10% for the operating costs

o   20% towards prizes

o   17% was allocated to the ELM with 3%VAT

It was explained to the Committee that the VAT could be claimed back by the Council.

·       The Community Groups involved in the Lottery promoted it to their supporters. This meant that the more supporters the group had, the more funding would be received through the purchase of tickets.

·       There had been a slight dip in the numbers of players of the Lottery since the last report considered by Members at their Committee meeting held in January 2021.

·       There was no allocated Council budget to promote the Community Lottery.

Members were interested in the table of data that had been provided as part of the report. The Redditch Partnership Manager explained that the information had been extracted from the dashboard and reflected the whole 18 months that the Lottery had been running. Some Members queried the discrepancies between the figures provided in the table and those that appeared in other areas of the report particularly regarding the amounts that had been received by Good Causes and requested clarification on these figures. Officers confirmed that they would provide further information and narrative on the table and circulate to Members.

During a detailed discussion Members expressed that it would be useful if future reports included the information on a year and year basis. This would help to provide a more useful comparison of how the Lottery was progressing. The Redditch Partnership Manager undertook to see if it was possible to present the date in this manner for future meetings.

It was explained to Members that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic research had been undertaken to establish the impact of the Lottery on local community groups. It was found that groups felt that they had been helped by the funding received by the Lottery. It was acknowledged, however, that some community groups had more local support which in turn resulted in greater funding being received.

There was interest from the Members regarding the prizes that were available. The Redditch Partnership Manager explained that there were a variety of prizes available. As well as the £25,000 jackpot there were smaller monetary prizes in addition to ‘bolt-ons’ which were provided by Gatherwell. Some Members felt that local residents might be more incentivised to buy tickets if the Lottery were better publicised and they were keen that some communications be released. Some Members of the Committee queried why residents would take part in this Lottery over alternative lotteries that offered higher monetary wins. Officers explained that most players chose to play to support local community groups and not necessarily to win a prize.

The Chair invited the Councillor Dormer, who was in attendance in his role as relevant Portfolio Holder to comment on the report. He explained that it was positive that the only a small number of participants had ceased playing the Lottery during the pandemic.

The Chair thanked Councillor Dormer for his attendance and took the opportunity to query the current position in respect of the Towns Bid. Councillor Dormer explained that although he sat on the Board the decisions made were not only Council decisions but a whole Board decision. The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee queried whether it would be possible in order to better understand the process undertaken by the Board, the projects that were being considered and how the funding was allocated whether a Towns Bid Board member would be willing to come and talk to the Committee. It was agreed that this would be added to the Committee’s Work programme for consideration in the future.

RESOLVED that

The Community Lottery Update be noted.