Preston could be coming under the spotlight in a TV competition to win up to £50milllion of lottery lolly.

Town Hall chiefs will find out tomorrow if the city has been put on the list of places to appear on ITV's The People's Millions programme.

The Restoration-style show, to be screened next year, will give viewers the chance to vote on which community project deserves a grant - of between £25m and £50m - from the Big Lottery Fund.

And if Preston wins, council chiefs plan to use the cash to kick-start the £800m Riverworks project to revamp city's waterways with a landmark docklands building, thousands of new homes along the Ribble, and improved canal links to the city centre.

Town Hall bosses said the money would pay for a new central park between Preston and South Ribble and fund river crossing improvements so the waterway can be used for leisure pursuits.

It is also hoped the money would encourage millions of pounds of private investment which is needed to make the project a reality.

The council has also put its name forward for a separate grant, under the same fund, for £10m to £25m to spend on improvements to historic public spaces in the city centre such as Winckley Square and the Flag Market.

Tight-lipped chiefs declined to reveal too much about either scheme at this stage in case the grants were unsuccessful.

Mike Brogan, assistant director of city projects, said: "We submitted an initial proposal to the Big Lottery Fund Living Landmarks programme, for the development of Riverworks and improvement of the public realm at the Flag Market and Winckley Square.

"We have to be realistic about our chances as we know the competition will be tough, but they are certainly interesting and worthwhile bids so we'll just have to wait and see."

If long-listed, the council will have until January 2007 to prepare stage two applications, and may be offered development funding of up to £250,000 to advance the ideas further.

If the Riverworks application gets past stage two and is short-listed, it would then be pitted against other projects from across the country on the programme to be shown in June and July 2007.

The separate £10m-£25m application would be decided in June 2007 by a panel of judges including architects, and environmental and regeneration experts.