Hundreds of community groups and after-schools clubs in Scotland could face closure in a major shake-up of National Lottery funding.
Under UK Government plans, the Big Lottery Fund (Big) – which has a remit to help communities and people most in need – will lose funding worth up to £15 million a year.
It will also be barred from funding projects linked to the public sector.
This will leave hundreds of clubs, sports coaching and other programmes linked to primary and secondary schools without funding, as well as threaten many grassroots programmes.
Under the changes, ministers propose to cut Big’s proportion of lottery cash from 50% to 40%, and increase the share allocated to sports, heritage and the arts from 16% to 20% each.
