A NEW lottery scheme planned by Northumberland County Council would support local causes.

The council will discuss whether it starts its own lottery which would see half of every ticket sold at £1 going in to the community at August’s cabinet meeting.

Members of the council’s corporate services committee revealed the proposals which were being mooted to benefit people living in the county and would be rolled out later this year.

While 50p would be earmarked for local causes, 10p would go to the council to cover the running costs of the scheme, while 37p would go to management service Gatherwell, which runs lotteries for around 80 local authorities nationally. The remaining 3p would be for VAT.

As terms of the scheme, players choose six numbers between zero and nine for a chance to win a range or prizes from free tickets right up to a grand prize of £25,000.

It was revealed the proposed initial set-up costs to Northumberland County Council would be £8,850 but members predicted the council would recoup this money after two years, according to forecast ticket sales.

Annual recurring costs for licences and membership of the Lotteries Council, plus a yearly marketing budget of £2,000, would total £3,820, which the council believes it would quickly recover from receiving 10 per cent of the ticket sales.