City Deal sum could be revealed in days
Region’s £500m bid
Stirling Council expects to hear within days just how much UK and Scottish Government funding will be made available for City Region Deal plans.
Councillors unanimously agreed to delegate authority to the chief executive, in consultation with group leaders, to accept the offer of a Heads of Terms Agreement for the Stirling-related elements of the deal, which also covers Clackmannanshire.
Children, communities and enterprise director Carol Beattie told councillors last Thursday at a full council meeting that the offer could come through as early as this week and delegated powers were needed to ensure the council could accept the offer within a short timeframe.
The council submitted a £500 million ‘wish list’ last year including a digital hub, new council offices, Scottish Tartan Centre and parklands.
Ms Beattie added: “The projects put forward have been the subject of considerable work over the past two years.
“This part of it is the feedback directly from the Scottish and UK Governments that will tell us the parts they want to invest in.”
Council leader Scott Farmer (SNP) said: “We will never get anywhere near what we are asking for but there will also be work done for private sector investment to get the maximum out of this moving forward.”
Tory group leader Councillor Neil Benny added: “This has been done on a cross party basis. It feels as if it has moved slowly but a lot of work has gone into this.
“Obviously there is going to have to be some element of negotiated compromise, but I want to ensure we are comfortable with any compromises we are asked to make.”