Bridgend County Borough Council has held discussions on how the authority is planning to spend their share of the UK Government’s new Shared Prosperity Funding. In the monthly cabinet meeting, council bosses announced that they will be seeking more than £23m to support people and skills across the borough, as well as helping local businesses and communities.
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The funding has been designed to replace European structural funds, with local councils encouraged to apply and use it on projects which boost productivity, jobs and living standards in their respective areas. It is also on offer to improve public services, and instil a sense of local pride in residents.
Councillors at the meeting heard how all authorities within the Cardiff Capital Region are expected to collaborate on one regional investment plan in the coming months, with Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council appointed to act as the lead authority and to progress the area’s individual plans.
In total, Bridgend County Borough Council is looking to receive more than £23m to support a number of projects within the comminity. For example, more than £1m will be ear-marked for health, climate and economical projects that will develop stronger local communities, along with a Resilience Hub that has space for exhibitions, as well as a trader’s area and pop-up seminars and workshops.
More than £2m would be spent on projects and initiatives that help develop community capacity, such as establishing a new third sector fund or extending grants that support commercial properties beyond local town centres. There would be £725,000 for green space enhancements and projects such as the Great Glamorgan Way, a 270km network of green corridors connecting communities throughout the region, and £400,000 to support local development and investment plans.
Other projects would include a £3.5m sum to establish new centres of enterprise across the county borough, alongside £8m to support an employability and skills package which would help people in employment and key sectors and unemployed and economically inactive people. As the lead authority within the region, Rhondda Cynon Taff will now put forward the council’s local investment plan for UK Government to consider in closer detail. You can read more of our stories from Bridgend here, and to subscribe to our weekly newsletters click here.
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