GIVEN the many loony and trivial causes that have already received lottery grants -- my favourite is the pub lunch for a bunch of stiff-jointed East Lancashire oldies who ended up at the wrong boozer anyway -- the £5,000 awarded to four photography enthusiasts to take pictures of old gasometers in this neck of the woods is only another instance of the ongoing daftness.

But if this is excused as capturing some of our architectural heritage for posterity, does not the imagined value of that -- not to mention the snappers in question being able to indulge their hobby and personal whimsy at public expense -- need setting against causes with somewhat more substance?

Such as the two or so hip replacement operations such an amount would buy for folk in pain on the NHS waiting list or a CCTV camera for a crime-blighted community?

Is it not too much to ask that the people put in charge of the lottery money's purse strings are drawn from the majority who know the value of money and where it needs to be spent?