I WAS very interested to read about the Sport England North West's £1 Million Challenge funded by the Lottery Fund (Business Page, Bolton Evening News, January 11).

I was pleased to note that a Worsley accountancy firm had become a 'big hitter in sport' but dismayed that this private employer had received £35,000 from the Lottery Fund to enable its 150 employees to participate in sport and physical activity during their working day - subsidised Gym membership, health checks, sponsored walks and fresh fruit in reception were quoted as examples.

I applaud the firm encouraging their staff to get fit, but let the partners or their clients subsidise it not the National Lottery. How many of our voluntary youth organisations or teachers organising extra curricular activities at our schools would not have welcomed such funding?

I have contacted my MP, the Secretary of State for Education, requesting her views and whether she supports such initiatives that can then be taken up by profit making Private Sector Companies.

Stanley G Wilson

Lower Austns

Lostock