The People's Millions...The Winner Is
by Bonnie Alter, London 
on 12.13.07
The People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway is the biggest-ever lottery grant awarded by public vote. It's a lottery fund with £50M to give away to the best environmental project in the UK. The winner is decided by voting and the lobbying has been hot. One of the four finalists has even taken out ads in the paper. Shouldn't have wasted their money; the winner is Sustrans' Connect2. It scooped 42% of the 286,285 votes entered by members of the public for the competition.
Connect2 is a UK-wide network of cycling and walking tracks, covering 12,000 miles across the country. The lottery money will let them improve local travel in 79 communities and involves building bridges, tunnels, crossings and networks of paths over a five year period. It includes a long-awaited foot bridge between Cardiff and Penarth, reinstating a ferry which last operated 30 years ago, two bridges over the River Wye at Monmouth and Tintern, and reopening a bridge designed by Isambard Brunel.
Sustrans is a national sustainable transport charity, sponsoring a National Cycle Network of 10,000 miles and promoting biking and walking for leisure and school children. Connect2 will expand on this vision by giving many more people direct and continuous access by foot and bike to local places. Congratulations to all the four finalists, and a big one to Connect2. :: The People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway
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I was a little disapointed by the result, living in Cornwall, the eden project has given the economy a huge boost (in what is one of the UK's poorest counties) and it too had pretty good green credentials.
If anyone was going to win over eden I'm very glad it was the cycle project, what angers me though is that it takes a £50m "lottery" to get it done, as far as I'm concerned, its something the government should be doing, not a charity.