Government offers Corby Council £750k cash pot for town centre improvements

The grant could pay for improvements to areas such as George Street (Alison Bagley image).

Corby’s town centre is set for a windfall after the Government put up three quarters of a million pounds to make improvements.

As one of the 100 town centres in the country that will benefit from the government’s £3.6bn town fund, Corby had been offered the additional £750,000 grant at the start of July.

It has now come up with a series of projects to spend the grant on, including increasing electric charging points, revamping the swimming pool’s entrance, and partially pedestrianising George Street.

The authority’s One Corby committee will meet tomorrow night (August 11) and must to give its list to the Government by Thursday (August 14). The £750,000 must be spent by the end of this financial year, next March.

The report that will be discussed by councillors tomorrow says: “On July 1 2020 Corby was offered a grant of £750,000 to fund capital projects. The grant must be used to support capital spend within the intervention framework set out in the Towns Fund guidance (appendix 1), and projects must be completed this financial year.

“Whilst the funds can be used to support any eligible Towns Fund intervention, MHCLG are encouraging projects that will support towns in responding to immediate Covid related challenges, including: improvement to or new parks and green spaces and sustainable transport links, improvements to town centres including repurposing empty commercial properties, demolition or site remediation where this will have an immediate benefit.”

The revamp of the pool entrance has been roughly costed at £150,000 and the pedestrianisation of George street is estimated at £400,000. An e-micromobility scheme involving bike hubs and electric bikes at a cost of £250,000 could also be included. However not all of the projects on the list will go forward and will come down to what can be delivered in the time frame.

Since the announcement last year of Corby being one of the 100 town fund selected bidders, a town deal board, made up of politicians and business leaders, has been meeting since January to come up with a detailed series of projects to help boost the economy of the town. It has until next January next to submit the bid for £25m to the government.

It is more than a decade ago that Corby underwent a major regeneration project which saw its former swimming pool and Willows theatre knocked down and replaced with its £40m Corby Cube civic hub building and an international sized pool and leisure centre.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

David Summers