UTV Projects

UTV broadcasts to people across Northern Ireland and holds the record for the highest number of votes cast for one project.

Over the past five years of the People’s Millions competition we have seen some great projects in Northern Ireland. Previous winners include river trails, play parks, a project to provide horticultural training, community gardens and many more.

Better Play in Whiterock

The project will develop an under-utilised space between a Primary & Nursery School in the disadvantaged Whiterock area of West Belfast by creating a play area that will provide 250 children with access to a vibrant, stimulating and challenging outdoor space. The area will be equiped to optimise opportunities to develop fine and gross motor skills and the children's confidence. Total project costs of £50,000 are being requested with all the purchases going through the Belfast Education and Library Board (BELB).

Early Years Centre

The project will benefit 104 people in the Belmont area of Belfast by allowing the applicant to purchase and site a prefabricated building which will allow it to continue to provide a quality pre-school provision and expand its services to address gaps in provision and meet demands within the local area. Due to a change in usage of its original base, Belmont Tower, the Pre-school lost its premises and has been operating out of temporary premises which it states are not fit for purpose. Also they must vacate the temporary premises by June 2009, which will leave them without premises, forcing the pre-school to close. £50,000 towards total project costs of £100,000 are being requested with all the purchases going through the Belfast Education and Library Board (BELB).

Building Our Children's Future

"Without the funding through the People’s Millions competition I’m not sure where we could have gone next." Fiona Tohill, local mum and playgroup leader h3. Local playgroup gets a reprieve to offer families a lifeline It was eyes down for a full house in Swatragh after a local playgroup Gran Tots scooped the jackpot in the Big Lottery Fund’s People’s Million giveaway. Gran Tots playgroup netted £50k to give the rural community new playgroup premises just in time for its 20th anniversary. It was one of eight NI projects which competed head to head on UTV for viewers' votes and nailed a staggering 61,800 - the highest vote ever in the competition. Local mum and playgroup volunteer, Fiona Tohill said they were delighted by the response. "We have 25 committee members who headed up the canvassing supported by their families and an army of well-wishers. Swatragh isn't a big place but we must have knocked on virtually every door in the town making sure people knew about us – then we went around them all again on the night with flyers which had the number to ring to register a vote for us." "We made sure we were everywhere –we even canvassed the local bingo club and got ministers in the town to give us a mention on the Sunday before the vote!" said Fiona. The team also enlisted the help of their local community centre: "There’s a wide range of classes run from the centre, so that was a good way of getting the message across to a large number of people in one go," said Fiona, who had also organised a bill board in the town centre, as well as a tannoy reminding people to support the group on the day of the vote. Not even the local councillors escaped, button-holed at any available opportunity and even social networking wasn’t ignored either with a posting on Bebo. "People were promising us their votes – but you never know until they votes are actually counted," added Fiona.

The Secret Garden

The project will use existing garden space in the grounds of Foyle Women's Aid to deliver a variety of activities, including a sensory garden, wilderness area, vegetable patch and an oasis garden to create a therapeutic environment for the women and children that use the services and have been severely traumatised. The land is owned by Foyle Women's Aid and the group state that no further permissions are required. The total project cost of £50,000 plus VAT is requested.

Regeneration of Maydown Play Park

This project will create an intergenerational recreational space which will provide a community focus and benefit 1000 residents of this rural community. ?50,000 + VAT is being requested towards total project costs of ?87,675 + VAT.