Charities, organisations and individuals in the Isle of Man have once again benefitted from hundreds of thousands of pounds of lottery money.

The 23rd report of the Isle of Man's Public Lottery Trust has been released and shows a total of ?261,430 of grants was given out in the year ending January 31, 2008.

Major outlays included ?30,000 for the Manx Workshop for the Disabled to help with the relocation to its new building and almost ?22,500 for the Island Games squad's uniforms for last year's event in Rhodes.

Meanwhile, it's hoped National Lottery funding for the Island will soon receive a big boost.

Edward Oldham reports (audio file attached):

The Public Lottery Trust has become the Manx Lottery Trust but that's not the only change.

The MLT is in negotiations with the UK's Big Lottery Fund over the direct allocation of money, as revealed in the Isle of Man budget.

The trust's money currently comes solely from the excise duty on local sales of National Lottery tickets but that could be supplemented by a guaranteed annual lump sum as well.

An announcement on the changes is expected soon.