Town misses out on £4.5m funding

It’s back to the drawing board for plans for Holbeach town centre after missing out on £4.5m worth of funding.

The town bid for money from the Government’s High Street Fund last year to pay for ambitious plans including creating a new ‘public realm’ to the rear of the recently refurbished The Chequers.

Holbeach had been given £150,000 of funding to prepare the bid. But it was not in the 72 places, announced on Boxing Day, which are being given a share of £830m in funding.

“It’s really disappointing as a lot of work has gone into this over the last couple of years and the feedback we’ve had was that the bid was in a very good place,” said district and county councillor Nick Worth. “So when the call came on Boxing Day that we weren’t successful it came as quite a shock.

“I am really frustrated. I felt we put in a really good bid and included everything they (the government) asked for.

“We were told we shouldn’t be looking for loads of money as a small town, but it seems it’s much bigger towns that have received the funding with the exception of March, though I don’t think they got what they needed.

“It seems a bit to be about vote chasing.

“I am very disappointed. It’s important that small rural towns need that funding too.

“I will be interested to see why we weren’t successful.

“It has been mentioned that the government wanted to see that the works would improve value of homes and therefore show value for money. That would be difficult to prove in a more rural area like ours.

“But I don’t want to be all doom and gloom as Holbeach is doing well as a town on the back of small, independent businesses.

“There’s some fantastic outlets and the market has been buzzing in recent weeks.”

Coun Worth said that those behind the bid would now look at other potential revenue streams including working with the private sector and Section 106 agreements, made with planning applications.

“We are trying to put together a plan B to see if we can recover something from the ashes. We’ve not got the £4.5m to spend but there are other options and we’ll try to put something together.

“We’ll go back to the government to work out why the bid wasn’t successful and whether there might be a second chance. There’s been a lot of support for what Holbeach High Street already has to offer and a real community effort to build on that.

“That’s a real positive to come out of it and we’ll still look to do something.

“Hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll put something together.”