£20m investment for Dewsbury confirmed
A £20m investment has been confirmed for Dewsbury as part of a government initiative ensuring “nowhere is left behind”.
The scheme was first introduced under the Conservative Pary’s Long-Term Plan for Towns, and has evolved into Labour’s Plan for Neighbourhoods.
A total of 75 areas are set to benefit from a share of the total £1.5bn, Dewsbury being one of them.
Ministers vowed that it will unleash the full potential of these “left behind” areas.
The cash is designed to be invested in delivering improved vital community services from education, health and employment, to tackling local issues like crime. It can be spent on things like high streets, local parks, youth clubs, cultural venues, libraries and health and wellbeing services.
In each of the 75 areas, the government will help set up a new ‘Neighbourhood Board’, bringing together residents, local businesses, and grassroots campaigners to draw up and implement a new vision for their neighbourhood.
Each board will decide how to spend up to £20m– they can choose from options ranging from repairs to pavements and high streets, to setting up community grocers providing low-cost alternatives when shopping for essentials, as well as co-operatives or even neighbourhood watches.
With this in mind, an extraordinary meeting of the existing Dewsbury Town Board is being held to put the next steps in motion.
The board will soon take on the title of ‘Neighbourhood Board’ and be responsible for submitting a 10-year regeneration plan by winter.
Membership of the new-look board needs to be confirmed by April 22, as does the geographical boundary of Dewsbury.
Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner said earlier this month: “For years, too many neighbourhoods have been starved of investment, despite their potential to thrive and grow.
"Communities across the UK have so much to offer – rich cultural capital, unique heritage but most of all, an understanding of their own neighbourhood.
“We will do things differently, our fully funded Plan for Neighbourhoods puts local people in the driving seat of their potential, having control of where the Whitehall cash goes – what issues they want to tackle, where they want to regenerate and what growth they want turbocharge.”