My inbox has been deluged with information about the PEOPLE’S MILLIONS project this week. It’s the TV show that distributes Big Lottery funding to community projects. Each night during this year’s voting period, two shortlisted projects will be featured on the local ITV regional news (in our case Granada Reports) between 6-6:30pm, then they’ll face a telephone vote to determine which of them receives that day’s funding.
Tomorrow, Manchester’s own Longford Park will be up against Windmill Hill Primary School in Runcorn, two garden-creation projects battling for support.
The project’s website http://www.peoplesmillions.org.uk/regions/granada/ allows you to view the @peoplesmillions Twitter feed, and you can register your details to support and endorse your chosen project, but that’s NOT the same as voting for it, which has to be done by phone during the voting period.
Is this as good a way as any to distribute funding – does it give people more say? And does it depend more on the ability of the individual projects to market themselves and mobilise support for their bid? After all, nobody wants to suffer the same fate as Jedward did on Sunday, now do they?
