a lot of

[emsr2d2]

In an attempt to simplify the various posts so far, this is how I see the rules:

When "a lot of" precedes a countable, plural noun, then it takes "There are"
When "a lot of" precedes an uncountable noun, it takes "There is".

There are a lot of people.
There are a lot of children.
There are a lot of languages in the world.
There are a lot of stars in the sky.

There is a lot of sand.
There is a lot of water.
There is a lot of money on the table.
There is a lot of food in my fridge.

Too simplistic?

[corum]

Too simplistic?

No, you are correct. Informally, however, 'there is' is accepted with plural nouns.

[corum]

and now we have different opinions again

That is the story of my life.

There are two subjects in your sentence:

1. there = grammatical subject, aka surface subject
2. a lot of something = deep subject

The verb has to agree with the deep subject.

[bertietheblue]

No, you are correct. Informally, however, 'there is' is accepted with plural nouns.

Although it has to be said that, in almost all cases, this becomes "there's" when used informally.