West Berks recovery projects win LEP funding

PROJECTS to assist West Berkshire’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis have received Government funding.

West Berkshire Council bids to bring full fibre broadband to rural communities and for a renewable resources centre in Newbury will benefit from the £7.5m allocation.

The fibre project seeks to bring gigabit fibre connectivity to all schools across West Berkshire with the aim of enhancing lessons, online training, cloud services and educational tools.

Other benefits include schools becoming digital community hubs to aid adult education and re-skilling.

Communities adjacent to connected schools will also be able to access gigabit connectivity via new digital infrastructure.

The Renewable Resources Centre is a joint green recovery project between Newbury College and Berkshire College of Agriculture (BCA) to create a 475 sq m renewable resource facility in Newbury.

The centre aims to generate economic benefit by increasing the number of qualified engineers able to install energy efficient systems.

The BCA will equip an existing college facility to provide training in servicing and maintenance of hybrid and electric vehicles, responding to increased demand for these skills from the motor industry.

The projects are two of six across Berkshire that will receive funding from the Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) share of the Government’s Getting Building Fund.

The Government asked for bids for ‘shovel ready’ projects to boost local economies as part of the response to Covid-19 and economic recovery.

Thames Valley LEP submitted a proposal of up to £45m for 27 infrastructure projects that could be completed by January 2022, but secured an allocation of £7.5m for seven of them.