Expectations are building as eight groups are today discovering that they are to appear on stv’s Scotland Today programme in a bid to win Big Lottery Fund good cause money. The groups will all be competing in November for awards of up to £80,000 in the regional People’s Millions TV contest.

This is the third year that the BIG Lottery Fund and ITV have worked together to bring the People’s Millions to living rooms across Scotland. Across the week of the 26th to 30th November, eight good causes will make their case on Scotland Today in a bid to secure public support by phone vote.

The People’s Millions contest will appear on regional news programmes all across the UK’s 18 ITV regions*. Each night two projects battle it out and at the end of the week, five projects in total will have each won up to £80,000 of good cause cash. The best runner-up in each region that chalks up the next best number of phone votes, will be the fifth winner announced on Friday, November 30.

The People’s Millions contest will be screened on each of Scotland’s three ITV regions: stv north, stv central and ITV Border. Five awards will be made in each region. That means in the stv central region five projects will share in up to £400,000 of Lottery cash.

Over the last two years the programme has handed out £7.2 million to 139 good causes UK-wide and 350,000 people have voted for their favourite project.

On Monday 26 November, Barony 'A' Frame Trust in Ayrshire will be battling it out against The Friends of Provan Hall in Glasgow. The Pitheid Patter project would allow the Barony ‘A’ Frame Trust to  provide interpretative materials, signage and a heritage garden at the site of the Barony 'A' Frame which was retained and listed after the Barony pit closed in 1989. The project would also recruit and train volunteer heritage guides. This is part of phase two of an oral history project about the lives of the miners who worked at the pit.

The Provan Hall Archaeology project from The Friends of Provan Hall would enable local volunteers and school children to record and investigate the remains and history of Provan Hall, one of Glasgow' s oldest buildings.  They would experience hands on archaeological fieldwork including excavation and the research and recording of information about the building.

On the following night, Tuesday 27 November, Bikeworks in Glenrothes will go head to head with Quarriers. The Bikeworks project, which creates employment and volunteering opportunities for people with disabilities and mental health problems, would reclaim and recondition bikes destined for landfill sites. This would reduce the damage to the environment while also giving people access to low cost bicycles and a route to better health. Quarriers will ask viewers to support the Seafield School - Sport for All project in Ardrossan which would develop an outdoor sports facility at Seafield School. The school supports many of Scotland's most vulnerable and challenging children and has no proper outdoor sports facilities.

On Wednesday 28 November, Drumchapel Adventure Group and the Glendoune Community Association will put their cases forward. Drumchapel Adventure Group want the People’s Million cash for its Equipment Upgrade Project which will upgrade old play equipment and provide a new mobile climbing frame. This mobile climbing frame would be taken to a range of community groups where it would support the group’s outreach work with disengaged young people. The Healthy Communities Initiative would create a multi-use games area in the Glendoune area of Girvan.  The facility would be available for use by people of all ages and abilities would increase the opportunities for young people to participate in sports and recreation.

Finally on Thursday 29 November West Dunbartonshire Council will go head to head with The Friends of Tollcross Park. In West Dunbartonshire, the Jump To It project would upgrade a run-down facility in Dumbarton and install new equipment to be used in taster sessions and coaching. This would improve access to quality athletic facilities for young people. The Tollcross Park Pond and Wetland project would create a lagoon type pool and terraced wetland area which would help to enhance a wildlife corridor, add to an existing nature trail and provide a facility where environmental education can take place.

Dharmendra Kanani, Big Lottery Fund Scotland Director, said: “This year’s People’s Millions contest is the biggest yet with more money available in Scotland than ever before. In Scotland we have a great range of projects going head to head for the public vote, all of which will encourage communities to work together to make their areas better places to live.  These groups need your support so please pick up the phone and vote. It could change the lives of people and communities forever.”

Gordon Macmillan, Head of News at stv, said: “I’m really pleased that stv is involved with The People’s Millions for the third year running. There are so many deserving community groups across Scotland, and the People’s Millions initiative is a great opportunity for Scotland Today and North Tonight viewers to influence where lottery funding should be spent. The shortlisted projects all work towards hugely important causes and I wish them the best of luck.”

As with previous years, ITV and the Big Lottery Fund will use a low cost non-premium rate telephone number. ITV and BIG do not make a profit from the voting telephone numbers.

The week following the regional Peoples’ Millions TV contest, the BIG Lottery Fund and ITV1 plan to screen on consecutive nights the People’s £50 million Lottery Giveaway in which four projects of national importance will compete for the public vote to win a massive £50 million award from the Fund.

A full list of shortlisted People's Millions projects throughout the UK can be found at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/pr_311007_uk_pm_shortlisted_projects_list

Further information

Landa Rolland at the Big Lottery Fund Press Office (SCOTLAND):  0141 242 1458
Out of Hours contact: 07789 033 457
STV contact: Anna Bondesson on 0141 300 3830
Full details of Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Key People’s Millions date for forward planning diaries: 26 - 30 November 2007, People's Millions competition televised on ITV

Notes to Editors

ITV broadcast regions in the People’s Millions:

ITV Anglia (East), ITV Anglia (West), ITV Border, ITV Central (East), ITV Central (West), ITV Granada, ITV London, ITV Meridian (South), ITV Meridian (South East), ITV Thames Valley, ITV Tyne Tees, ITV Wales, ITV West, ITV West Country, ITV Yorkshire, STV Central, STV North, UTV

• 90 awards are up for grabs across the UK – four winners plus one bonus award in each of the 18 ITV regions.
• Since the launch of People’s Millions in 2005, the aim of the contest has been to fund projects that improve the quality of life of local communities through transforming the local environment. This year projects that provide opportunities or facilities for enjoying the local environment have also been added to the funding criteria.
• The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• Telephone voting numbers – As with previous years, ITV and the Big Lottery Fund will use a low cost non-premium rate telephone number. ITV and BIG do not make a profit from the voting telephone numbers.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004.
• On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money.