Boost for Bacup in battle for funding
GOOD news for Bacup this week. After the fallout over the ‘future high streets’ funding bid, which saw local MP Jake Berry encourage Rossendale to submit a bid, then confuse everyone by telling Radio 4 that Bacup had been ‘passported to the next round,’ only to then confirm that actually meant ‘failed this time and what’s more Bacup’s bid didn’t even make the top 100’, things have taken a turn for the better.
The Government on Monday confirmed another 50 towns and cities which will share a further £325m. Bacup appears on the list - which suggests a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes between the council, the government and Jake Berry to get the bid into the top 100 - as it’s now 100 towns and cities which have been offered the chance to take part.
Rossendale Council will now receive up to £150,000 to work up more detailed proposals on what it would do in Bacup were it to get a share of potentially millions of pounds.
In theory, if £325m is available to these 50 areas, that’s an average of £6.5m each. Bacup is included with some much bigger towns - Dover, Dudley, Scarborough, Stockport, Rochdale, not to mention Blackpool, Plymouth, Southampton, Doncaster and Bolton. Several million has been spent via Heritage lottery funding in Bacup already - so what next?
Bacup’s plans need to be ambitious, they need to show how they will revitalise the town, and crucially make the most of its heritage. The competition for funding will be fierce, and it’s essential everyone pulls together.
That doesn’t mean just going along with what the council says - but making sure the council listens too. What makes the Bacup proposals so encouraging this time is that they have been created by working with the local town, which made Mr Berry’s early criticism of the town’s bid a bit of an own goal.
But that’s just politics. Now the real battle begins - Bacup vs 49 other towns for a chance to have a much brighter future.
EXPANSION of a government funding scheme has seen Bacup shortlisted among towns which could get ‘up to £20 million’ to improve the town centre.
Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP announced the Valley town as one of a further 50 areas shortlisted to benefit from the £1 billion Future High Streets Fund.
Earlier this year, Rossendale council bosses were told Bacup’s bid had not progressed to the business case development stage but that its bid had been selected to receive bespoke feedback with a view of submitting it again in a new round of funding in the new year.
But the extra funding means Government bosses have now decided to take the proposals for the town to the next stage.
The council’s Bacup 2040 Vision was used as the basis of its bid for the Future High Street Fund. More than £2m of investment has been brought into the town already through the Bacup Townscape Heritage Initiative
(THI) fund.
Each of these successful communities will receive immediate revenue funding of up to £150,000 to develop their bids, and then will be eligible for up to £20 million of capital investment to invest in infrastructure, housing and work spaces.
Coun Andrew Walmsley, cabinet member for resources, said: “We welcome the news, we always believed our bid was a strong one. We are pleased that the plans that have been developed following extensive consultation with businesses, landlords, community groups and residents feedback can now be developed into a costed business plan. This will be submitted in early 2020. The Bacup bid will be assessed again at this stage which will once again be a competitive process with only the strongest bids awarded up to £20 million.”
We will be consulting further with stakeholders and residents in the coming months to ensure that the Bacup 2040 Vision receives strong community support and that the best possible bid is submitted.”
Rossendale MP Jake Berry said he was ‘delighted’.
He said: “I know a few weeks ago, some people were disappointed that Bacup didn’t make it through the first round of funding. Bacup has secured £150,000 of government funding to come directly to the council to work on the next stages of our plan. That means we now get the opportunity to put together a really detailed plan to bid for up to £20m to help transform the town centre.”