The public will soon be able to vote on where £65.5m of National Lottery good cause money goes through People’s Millions – an initiative launched by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on 3 June.

Over the next three years, the public will be able to vote on the allocation of grants of £50,000, an award of £1.5m and a jackpot of up to £50m.

The community projects competing for the £50,000 awards will aim to improve amenities and public and green spaces – which could affect how some sport and heritage funding is distributed.

However, people will only be voting on money from the Big Lottery Fund – a merger of the New Opportunities Fund and Community Fund initiated on 1 June – which is responsible for distributing half of all Lottery funding.

The total Lottery payout to good causes for 2003-04 was around £1.4bn. Details: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk