Extra funds for local projects

£1.5m cash injection announced

An extra £1.5 million in new funding is to be distributed to local development projects – such as playparks, traffic calming and community and environmental schemes – by North Lanarkshire Council.

The money will be split between the seven revamped local area partnerships ( LAPs) covering the authority area, two of which respectively represent Airdrie and Coatbridge.

It follows a review of the local bodies, which will also see them move their quarterly meetings to evenings to allow more residents to attend and participate, potentially have more spending devolved to them, and will increase their consultation role regarding major planning developments.

Council leader Jim Logue said: “Local development projects have been squeezed because of budget cuts, so this is great news as more local projects can now be completed.

“People tell us it’s important that they are able to have a say in what goes on in their communities, so it’s vital we make it easy for people to get involved, and we’ve told council departments to start looking seriously at ways in which these partnerships can have more control to meet local needs.”

The partnerships bring together all of the councillors for Airdrie and Coatbridge respectively, along with community members and representatives of health and emergency services, the voluntary sector and council services including regeneration.

Separate local area committees – which previously approved local development – will now no longer exist, with LAP spending decisions being approved by the policy and resources group.

A report for councillors at that committee noted that the programme of local projects “could be developed further to target local priorities”, and that when developers submit major application notices, “a special meeting of the LAP will be held [and] the council will require the applicant to attend and make a presentation”.