Lottery money for North Edinburgh must be protected - Lib Dems

12.00.00am GMT Wed 13th Feb 2008

Kevin Lang wants to ensure the Labour Government does not raid any more of our local lottery money

Liberal Democrats have welcomed new figures showing records amounts of national lottery money for groups in North Edinburgh and Leith but warned future funding had to be protected from further raids on lottery funds by Government.

New figures from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport showed that 121 organisations based in the Edinburgh North and Leith constituency shared over £21 million worth of funding from the National Lottery in 2007. This was the highest total for the area in over ten years.

The local Liberal Democrats have now challenged the Government to maintain this level of funding by ruling out future raids on funds to pay for the London 2012 Olympics. This follows an announcement from the Government last month, when an additional £1.1 billion of lottery money was taken for the London Olympics project.

Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Edinburgh North & Leith, Kevin Lang said, "This record amount of lottery money for local projects is great news for North Edinburgh and Leith and shows how many deserving community, sporting and cultural groups there are in the local area. I have no doubt this money will make a huge contribution to our local community, with many groups relying on this funding just to continue operating.

"However, we must not be complacent. Just last month, an additional £1 billion was taken from the National Lottery to help fund the London 2012 Olympics. It is now vital that no more money is raided from lottery funds for this purpose. To do so would risk undoing the kind of progress we have seen here in Edinburgh and could put the future of some local sporting and community projects in serious jeopardy."