AN MP has blasted the National Lottery cash share out as "corrupt" after it was revealed that Bolton, Bury and Worsley have received only £6.5 million between them since the National Lottery was launched.
In the same period London had a total cash windfall of £550 million.
While Bury North tops the local cash league with just over £3 million, the City of London and Westminster tops the national list with a whopping £201 million.
Worsley MP Terry Lewis said the system for dishing out lottery cash was corrupt and a fellow MP called it a "massive misdistribution of awards."
Six of the top 10 constituencies out of the UK's 651 are from London.
Government Minister Alistair Burt's Bury North comes 100th with £3,079,776. The next local seat in the lottery cash league table is another Tory marginal Bolton North-East with £2,100,973 in 153rd place.
Bury South - also narrowly held by the Tories - comes third in the local list in 483rd place with a total cash allocation of £454,597.
Bolton West - held by Home Office Minister Tom Sackville - comes next in 515th place nationally with £381,157. Labour-held Bolton South East and Worsley lag behind with £313,794 (546th) and £217,137 (589th) respectively. The North-West list is topped by Salford East which comes third in the national league with £50m - mainly to pay for the new Lowry Centre. Wigan is third and 40th nationally with £6.5m in awards.
Labour left winger Mr Lewis, angry at his constituency's share, hit out: "It is corrupt. I forecast when the lottery began two years ago this would happen - that the government would be guided to Tory marginal seats and other areas where there are Tory sympathisers.""
But a National Heritage Department spokeswoman denied this was the case and said London had received most of the cash so far for two reasons. The first was that as the capital it did house large organisations and institutions that fulfilled the criteria for cash. Second, organisations based there were experienced in bidding for cash and thus had a head start.
But she said that the Lottery money distributors were now looking to give cash to other parts of the UK so that there will be an even spread throughout the country.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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