£82k ploughed into town centre’s tranformation
Cash earmarked to help boost Johnston town centre has been welcomed.
Money has been pumped in to improve the retail environment over the past five years, from a dedicated Renfrewshire Council investment pot.
Some £82,754 in grants has been ploughed in from the Retail Improvement Scheme (RIS) to help boost the town.
Independent council candidate Andy Doig, who is standing in the Johnstone North, Kilbarchan, Howwood, and Lochwinnoch ward at the upcoming election, has welcomed the windfall.
Speaking at the authority’s Leadership Board, he said:“I am delighted to see in this report on the Retail Improvement Scheme that 14 Johnstone businesses have received £82,754 to upgrade their shopfronts over the last five years, second only to 31 businesses in Paisley which received £296,254.
Renfrew has a population a third larger than Johnstone, yet seven businesses only received £68,630. It is great to see Johnstone punching above its weight in retail terms.
“At the council’s recent 2022/23 Budget I lobbied the administration to revive the RIS as, due to the demands of covid recovery, the fund had been diverted for a few years.
“At my request, they put in £150,000 to kickstart the RIS up again and this can bring funding of either £10,000 or 80 per cent of costs to help local traders upgrade and brighten up their shopfronts.”
He added:“Since this scheme was launched over a decade ago by Renfrewshire Council, it has been a great boon to local businesses in helping them to continue to deliver local and sustainable jobs in our town centres, against the twin pressures of online shopping and out of town shopping.
“Keeping our local businesses alive keeps our town centres alive and builds social solidarity.
“This report rightly looks at how we can improve the scheme, and one way would be to make it easier to apply.
“One reason Johnstone town centre has a high award is that over the last decade I have promoted it to Johnstone Business Consortium, and sometimes even lettered traders individually with the details of how to apply so Johnstone gets its fair share.”