Allerdale Borough Council is to bid for money to help Maryport’s high street.
The council is currently putting together an ‘expression of interest’ for money from the Future High Street Fund.
The fund is a central government initiative which is providing £675m to help high streets all over the country adopt, and adapt, to changes in the retail trade.
The money can be used for a broad range of initiatives which help address issues like vacant shop units, making high streets more attractive and viable, and improving the local infrastructure.
The council has already established, with help from the local community, a new regeneration scheme for Maryport which includes improvements on the promenade and town centre, as well as a series of events, to make the town more attractive to visitors and local residents.
Work is ongoing and the budget for next year includes £150,000 towards an attractive “container village” in the harbour area for food and other stalls. It is hoped this funding, if the bid is successful, will help towards this work.
The bid will concentrate on initiatives in the town’s Curzon Street and Senhouse Street.
The bid-team is being led by council officer Paul Taylor, who has joined head of service Graeme Wilson to work on the council’s regeneration efforts in the town. The team works out of their office at the town hall.
Speaking on the bid, Mark Fryer, Executive member with responsibility for economic growth said: “This is an early stage in the bidding process and I’m sure the fund will attract many expressions of interest. We’ve made a commitment in our Council Plan to make our towns more attractive and sustainable and identified some key projects for Maryport. We’ve got a great team on the project and I’m really hopeful we’ll be successful with our bid.”
The bid is being supported by Cumbria County Council, the town council, and BEC. If the council is successful in this first stage, it will carry out a full consultation with local residents and businesses on future projects.
Deadline for bids is 22 March 2019.
