Cortonwood railway scheme bids for Lottery cash

Elsecar Heritage Railway’s (EHR) plans for the Cortonwood Coal Mining Memorial Park will be featured on ITV’s Calendar tonight as one of six projects out to scoop £50,000 of Lottery funding.

They are up against Grimsby’s Cultivating my Community, with the winner to be chosen in a viewers’ vote.

EHR will use their winnings to create a memorial garden, picnic and play area on part of the old Cortonwood Colliery station site near Wombwell, to commemorate the 300 years of coal mining in South Yorkshire.

The project will involve local mining communities and the park will be located where the year-long miners’ strike began in 1984.

Since The People's Millions began in 2005 the competition has funded over 520 diverse community projects UK-wide with £27.8 million in Big Lottery Fund good cause money.

There are three, £50,000 awards up for grabs in the region — one award for each night, as well as a bonus award for the runner-up with the most phone votes across the week.

Voting numbers will be available on the day the projects are due to appear on ITV from www.peoplesmillions.org.uk, as well as in the Daily Mirror. Telephone voting lines open at 9am on each day and close at midnight, with winners announced the following day.

For more information visit www.peoplesmillions.org.uk/2013-finalists/yorkshire-south.