Millennium cash bids double in two days

Applications for the Millennium Commission’s estimated ú1.6bn of lottery funding have more than doubled in the two days preceding last week’s deadline.

The commission had 600 applications two days before the 31 March deadline. It now has 1500, requesting a total of ú12bn.

“This is phenomenal – we were only expecting about another 200 applications,” says a commission spokesman. The commission will shortlist projects for further consideration in mid-May, and give its final decision in July.

Meanwhile, the Arts Council is poised to award Lottery funds to up to 50 projects in May after its first nine allocations last week, which totalled just under ú2m. The largest grant was ú980 000 for the Sir Richard Rogers-inspired transparent canopy for London’s South Bank Centre.

Other beneficiaries include Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery, which gets ú100 000 towards its conversion by architect Levitt Bernstein Associates, and the Yorkshire Dance Centre’s new base, which gets ú606 000 for work by Leeds practice Allen Tod Architects.

The Lottery Sports Fund is also poised to award around ú10m to a variety of new projects by this time next month.

The Heritage Lottery Fund currently has 200 applications for its ú150m cash for 1995, and will make an announcement on its grants at the end of this month.