Drug addicts 'deserve lottery cash as much as play groups'

The remarks by the chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund, Stephen Dunmore, are certain to outrage those who buy tickets in the hope that the money will go to good causes.

The fund has been widely criticised for supporting fringe groups and paying for Labour initiatives while turning down mainstream charities and popular projects.

Last year it rejected a request for £4.4million from trustees of a new national memorial to commemorate the 16,000 servicemen and women killed in the line of duty since the Second World War.

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Mr Dunmore yesterday tried to defend the decision-making process. He said: "We have to make difficult decisions about what to fund. The challenge is how we manage this while maximising the use of lottery funding.

"What is more worthy of funding? A project that works with those who have drug problems or those that support a children's play centre?

"The best grants are not always the most obvious or the most popular. Who is to judge what a controversial grant is anyway?'

Mr Dunmore used the murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich last year to justify the decision to give money to unpopular causes.

He said that in 2005 the fund was 'lambasted' for handing a grant of £350,000 to help offer health and support services for prostitutes in Glasgow.

But after the Suffolk murders, he said, the media response was "to scream: Where are the support and security services for these vulnerable people?".

He added: "Today's controversies are often tomorrow's popular causes.

Mr Dunmore said the fund paid out £600million a year - but received application from charities, health organisations and other good causes for £8.3billion.

In August last year, the Big Lottery Fund was condemned for handing out money to help set up "shooting galleries" for hardened drug addicts.

Four will open for long-time users to inject themselves with free heroin or heroin substitutes supplied in a safe environment under the supervision of nurses.

The controversial Big Lottery Fund is handing over £550,000 to fund them.

Hugh Robertson, a Tory culture spokesman, said lottery funding should only be used in the areas it was originally set up to help: arts, sport, heritage and charities.

He said: "Labour has increasingly used the lottery has a slush fund to fund its own politically-correct pet projects in health and education.

"It is very clear that the person in the street who pays £1 for a ticket would be appalled to find out that it was being used to help drug addicts.

"I think they would consider a children's play centre a much less controversial, and more worthy, choice."

Mr Dunmore was appointed chief executive of the National Lottery's New Opportunities Fund in 1998.

In 2003, he became the head of the Big Lottery Fund, created from the merger of the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund, which also handed out grants to worthy causes.