Around £5 million of investment is set to be given the green light by council leaders for Westmorland and Furness.
Cash for 14 projects is set to be approved by Westmorland and Furness Council when it meets on June 6.
The authority said all projects would be delivered by the end of March next year.
Jonathan Brook, council leader, said: “We want our new council to make a real difference, and we want local people to see and feel that as quickly as possible. With this £5m investment we will be supporting projects we know we can deliver quickly, and that will have an impact for people now.”
The projects proposed for funding include:
- A £500,000 welfare support top up fund to help people in need
- £300,000 to contribute to new ways of providing help to children and families
- A £500,000 youth education and training travel bursary scheme
- £80,000 to ensure no one is waiting too long for occupational therapy aids
- £50,000 for a pilot project using technology to deliver simple social care
- £80,000 to roll out a new training programme to ensure council staff who are supporting people are ‘trauma informed’
- £1m for local sustainable transport schemes, like cycling and walking routes and community transport, plus £150,000 for staff to support the delivery of schemes.
- £70,000 to fund a discount bus travel scheme for all five to 20-year-olds
- £300,000 to introduce 20mph zones where communities want them
- £500,000 for a new climate change and environment grant fund
- £440,000 to support biodiversity and nature regeneration
- £300,000 funding for three Locality Boards to spend on their own local priorities
- £250,000 to support cultural organisations manage the legacy of the pandemic and the cost-of-living
Councillor Brook added: “Creating our new council is a huge opportunity to do things differently and improve services and we are realistic about how complex that task is and how long it is going to take. But local people understandably want to see some benefit from this change quickly.
“These priority investments are all things that wouldn’t happen without our new council, and we believe they reflect issues that local people have told us are important to them.
“I would stress, this is by no means all we are going to do, but it’s a really positive start and I’m looking forward to seeing the projects get underway.”
