The leader of East Riding Council has welcomed the Government’s decision to invest in Withernsea.
The town and surrounding villages will receive £20 million of investment from the Government’s newly announced Pride in Place Programme.
The Government hopes the funding will help restore pride and community cohesion in overlooked areas. Areas in Bridlington and Hull have also been included in the programme.
A Government report on the programme explains that where the funding is to be spent will be decided by “a Neighbourhood Board, led by an independent Chair, that includes residents, local businesses, civil society and community organisations, working in partnership with their respective local authority.” The local authority in this case would be East Riding Council.
The report add: “Boards might decide to spend their funding on the regeneration of a town square, local community centre or social club, the development of a new community garden, the rollout of a new programme to tackle homelessness or services to tackle child poverty and provide essential support to families and young people. Similarly, they may choose to use the funding to develop an action plan to address local cohesion issues, or local arts, cultural, heritage and sport initiatives.”
Welcoming the news of the new funding, Cllr Anne Handley, the leader of East Riding of Yorkshire Council said: “We’re delighted the Government has chosen to invest in our priority regeneration areas. This investment will form the cornerstone of our coastal economic strategy which is currently under development. It will allow us to target investment towards the 5% of our population that live in our most vulnerable neighbourhoods.”
The Government’s Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed MP, has explained that the fund seeks to reverse a decline in local pride in their local areas. Mr Reed wrote the foreword to the Government’s report in which he states: “The impact of this decline in local pride has been corrosive. It divides communities, deprives public institutions of trust, and emboldens extremists to attack the foundations of our country.
“The causes aren’t straight forward – austerity, deindustrialisation, an uncritical embrace of globalisation are all a part of it – but what connects it all is a style of government which deprived people of control. Leaders have a choice; we don’t have to follow the well-trodden path of hoarding power and micromanaging from dark corridors in Whitehall. Decisions about communities, made without them. This Government sees an alternative – putting people in control of their lives, and their local area.
“Make no mistake that this is a pilot in a new way of governing, and it dwarfs anything that has come before. The Party, founded a hundred years ago to serve working families, is today putting working families in control of their lives and their neighbourhood. This is our alternative to the forces trying to pull us apart. This is our answer to those who feel silenced, ignored and forgotten.”
By: Andrew Spence, LDRS
