Lottery boost for county economy

The new lottery could benefit firms like Ten Green Bottles Powys

Businesses and community schemes in Powys could benefit from a new lottery, its organisers have claimed.

They are calling for residents to back the weekly Powys Lottery which will be launched in the summer.

It is hoped sales of the £1-a-week tickets will enable the lottery to provide grants and interest-free loans of up to £25,000 to firms and projects.

It will also help to balance out reductions in funds from the government and Europe, its organisers claim.

Sustainable businesses and small firms could be among those set to benefit from the lottery-funded grants and loans.

This will be a lottery which enables the people of Powys to help themselves Shane Logan, Powys Lottery

Company bosses wanting to put solar panels on the roof of their premises to make their businesses more sustainable could apply for funding through the lottery, said Shane Logan of the Powys Lottery.

"Large scale funding from the government, Europe and the National Lottery is disappearing from the county," said Mr Logan.

"This will be a lottery which enables the people of Powys to help themselves."

Discarded glass bottles

Mr Logan said they were developing the Powys lottery from the model of the Pembrokeshire lottery.

"It has put £2.8m into the local economy over the past 20 years and created over 800 jobs," he said of the Pembrokeshire scheme.

One of the businesses hoping to benefit from the lottery is Ten Green Bottles Powys, which makes crafts from discarded glass bottles and which specialises in working with people with learning disabilities.

"We need more machinery to help us develop our range, we need a fabulous all singing, all dancing website and we need to market ourselves better," said managing director Lorraine Powers.

"So we are always going to need some kind of support although we think our products sell themselves."