Jamie Carpenter,
Regeneration & Renewal,
15 June 2009
A project to revamp the seafront at Weymouth and public realm schemes in Wiltshire and Somerset will miss out on funding from the South-West Regional Development Agency as it grapples with a £56 million reduction in funding over the next two years.
Swerda says that budget raids to support recession-busting housing and business support initiatives and a fall in land receipts will leave the agency about £56 million worse off between 2009 and 2011.
Last week, the RDA outlined details of the projects that will not now receive financial support over the next two years.
The shortfall means that:
- A £6.6 million project to redevelop the Weymouth seafront in time for the 2012 Olympics, at which the Dorset resort will host sailing events, will miss out on funding.
- A scheme to improve the public realm at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, will not receive any further funding.
- The RDA will not be able to support the Bridport South-West Quadrant mixed-use development in Dorset.
- A planned investment of £600,000 towards public realm improvements at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, will not be made.
- A community centre planned as part of the Greyfriars development in Gloucester city centre "no longer represents one of the RDA's core priorities".
- The RDA will not be able to provide any funding towards a public realm project in Cinderford in Gloucestershire.
- Swerda will review its contribution towards the next phase of infrastructure for the Millbay project in Plymouth.
- Cash to compulsorily purchase a derelict eyesore building close to Bristol city centre will no longer be provided by the RDA.
Swerda chief executive Jane Henderson said: "We have had to tighten our belts and will not now be able to fund all the investments we hoped we could. None of these choices have been made lightly."
Michael Goodman, chair of Weymouth & Portland Borough Council's management committee, said he was "bitterly disappointed" at the news that Weymouth's seafront project would miss out on funding. "A great deal of work by our own staff and that of potential partners has been wasted as a result," he said.
In a statement, Sedgemoor District Council said it was "extremely disappointed" that Burnham-on-Sea's public realm project had been a casualty of the cuts.
