New community lottery would raise funds for Rother good causes

On Monday (February 4), Rother District Council’s cabinet members are set to consider whether to give their backing to the scheme and bringing in an outside party to run it.

If established, the lottery would be expected to provide funding to both the council’s community grants scheme and to local community groups directly.

In a report to cabinet, a council officer said: “Rother District Council has a strong track record of supporting local community and voluntary groups to deliver voluntary services, projects and activities in the community.

“The Rother Community Grants scheme (CGS) directly funds up to £130,000 per year. A local lottery would support community projects in the district on the principle of raising money within the community for the community. 

“A lottery could be an alternative income stream for voluntary groups by directly benefiting from a percentage of lottery ticket sales when their cause is selected by lottery players, whilst at the same time supporting the CGS budget at a time of financial challenges.” 

The report goes on to say that the council would have two options for setting up a local lottery, either running it in-house or employing an external manager.

Setting up an in-house lottery would cost the council in the region of £80,000 to £100,000, as it would involve creating several new posts and setting-up new systems. This, officers say, would result in a significant financial risk to the council, particularly should the lottery prove to be unsuccessful. 

As a result officers are instead recommending the council bring in an licenced External Lottery Manager (ELM), as the financial risk would be passed on to that provider. 

If brought on The ELM would deliver all aspects of running the lottery, including ticket sales, revenue collection, prize management and licensing. 

It would also bring down the council’s upfront costs down to around £10,000 for licensing and launching the scheme.

On-going costs can be expected to be approximately £1,200 each year, plus marketing. There would be no annual cost for the ELM as this would be covered by the administration element on ticket sales.

The report says: “A Rother Community Lottery will enable voluntary and community groups to access funding by contributing to the success of the lottery. 

“It will also ensure that funding can be drawn into the support of the Community Grants scheme which will replace a proportion of the Rother District Council ‘earmarked reserves’ currently used to support this scheme. 

“It is recommended that a Rother Community Lottery is established and that [officers] be granted delegated authority to agree the necessary contracts.”

If given the backing of cabinet members, the proposals will be put to a full council vote in the near future.