Online community lottery plans, to boost funds for local good causes, have been put forward by Hertsmere Borough Council.

Under the proposals, the lottery tickets would cost £1 and half of the ticket price would go to not-for-profit organisations operating in the borough.

That’s significantly more than the 28 per cent allocated to good causes by the National Lottery or the 27.5 per cent from the Postcode Lottery.

And players would even be able to choose whether to support individual organisations that had registered – or all of them.

The proposal for a community lottery was backed by a meeting of Hertsmere Borough Council’s executive on Wednesday (March 18).

At the meeting, portfolio holder for leisure, culture and health Cllr Caroline Clapper told the executive local lotteries were “an absolutely fantastic” way for local causes to raise money and to promote the good work they do.

She said a community lottery in Hertsmere would help local organisations to access additional direct funding and benefit the council.

And, she suggested, it would be Hertsmere residents winning the prizes too.

As part of the community lottery plan, 50p of the £1 ticket price would be allocated to good causes – and a further 10p would be allocated to the ‘community fund’, controlled by the council.

There would be 20p from the sale of each ticket allocated to the prize fund and 17p would be needed to fund the administration and management and 3p for VAT.

Modelling shows that if 387 tickets were sold each week, the registered good causes would receive £10,062 a year.

And if there were 2709 tickets sold each week, that would raise £73, 251 for good causes – and a further £14,087 for the council’s fund. It would also mean a prize fund of £29,301.

At the meeting councillors heard that community lotteries were already used by a number of authorities.

The suggested scheme, they were told, would require set-up funding of £5000 and would require an annual licence and Lotteries Council membership, at a cost of £1045.

If the proposals are backed by a meeting of the full council, it could be launched within six months if its not affect by the coronavirus pandemic and Gatherwell Ltd would be appointed as the external lottery manager.