$3m lottery handout sought for Opera House

The Oamaru Opera House.
The Oamaru Opera House.
The Waitaki District Council wants lottery money to cover a large part of the $9.7 million upgrade of the Opera House in Oamaru, which is scheduled for completion in November.

It has applied to the Lottery Grants Board's significant projects fund, a new fund which is due to make its first grant towards the end of next month, for $3 million towards the Opera House project.

The new fund is similar to the Government's significant community-based projects fund, introduced in 2005, which had $32 million from the Government.

The council applied for $3 million from the Government fund, but it ran out of money and the grant, which was to be a major contributor to the Opera House, was turned down.

On Tuesday, the Lotteries fund administrators inspected the work on the Opera House and had discussions with the council before making a recommendation on its application.

The council's Opera House project manager, Stephen Halliwell, said the Lotteries fund had $18 million to distribute.

The fund was similar to that introduced by the Government, but some of the criteria differed.

The Lotteries fund will provide grants large enough to enable the completion of community projects with a value exceeding $1 million.

Projects must be for community purposes and the criteria are. -Funding is for capital expenditure projects only.

Projects must offer benefits at a wider community, regional and/or national level and be significant in scope and nature.

Projects must be community-based and have considerable community support.

The grant will be sufficient to enable completion of the project.

The fund will be the funder of last resort; that is, other sources of government and community funding have been sought and/or the project cannot obtain funding from other funds.

The criteria emphasis is that applicants must "demonstrate significant support from the community" for their projects.

 

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