The first grants from a multimillion pound fund for town centre improvement projects in Aberdeenshire have been approved. The Scottish Government announced a £50m Town Centre Fund in December to drive local economic activity and to stimulate and support economic improvements. Aberdeenshire Council’s share is £3.28m and its Infrastructure Services Committee (ISC) was given details of successful funding bids to date at a meeting today. May 16, 2019
Cash from the fund has to be legally committed by March 2020, so given the time constraint, consultation with councillors, business associations, community groups and services within Aberdeenshire Council identified several projects ready to be delivered.
The criteria set for the fund included the deliverability of the project, sustainability and transformation to the key town centres of Aberdeenshire.
A specially constituted panel considered projects which would stimulate and support a wide range of investments, encouraging town centres to diversify and flourish.
At its first meeting last week, the panel granted funding to ten projects worth £2.7m, the majority worked up by groups independent of the council.
The panel will meet to decide the second round of funding awards in June, and with the fund over-subscribed with eligible projects competition will be high.
ISC Chair, Peter Argyle, said: “This money is intended to drive local economic activity, to bring transformational change for towns and their surrounding communities by creating growth which supports them to become more vibrant, creative, enterprising and accessible places.
“The first round of applications has seen funding granted to a diverse range of projects that will bring transformational change to our key town centres throughout Aberdeenshire.”
Committee vice chair, John Cox, said: “The principle aim of this fund is to create footfall through local improvements and partnerships which encourage town centres to become more vibrant, creative, enterprising and accessible places for their communities.
“The council’s regeneration work in the four northern towns has identified projects to generate significant change and this new fund will allow some of those projects to be delivered faster, leveraging in even greater funding. The fund has also been able to support other key towns within Aberdeenshire.”
