Oswestry ready to bid for £500,000 improvements fund

Shropshire Council today gave the to-ahead for its officers to work with the town council and Business Improvement District to develop a bid for the grant. Oswestry has already been told that it if successful it would mean a grant of at least £374,600 from Historic England for the four-year life of the programme.

But if officers can put in a strong case that funding could leap to £500,000 in an upscaling of the award.

The majority of the fund would be spent on essential repairs to historic buildings, developing educational projects to turn the sites into community hubs and helping increase skills were there are shortages, in areas like stone masonary.

Promotion of tourism to bring visitors to the area would also be addressed.

Deputy leader of the council, Councillor Steve Charmley said that the push for the funding had been led by Future Oswestry, a group of representatives from Shropshire and Oswestry Town Councils and Oswestry's Business Improvement District.

"The Oswestry High Street Heritage Action Zone represents a significant opportunity for Shropshire Council to secure a share of the £95 million that Historic England has been allocated to support transformational projects for historic towns and high streets," a report to the council said.

Communities

Councillor Charmley said that the object of the fund was to make the high street a more attractive, engaging and vibrant place for people to live, work and spend time.

He said the programme was designed to secure lasting improvements to historic high streets and the communities who use them.

"The matched funding that we needed to apply for the grant has already been secured, which is great news for the town of Oswestry," said Councillor Charmley.

The package would be used to employ a project officer, set up a physical grants programme of £300,000 for the improvement of the town's buildings and set up a £100,000 cultural programme.

Matched funding for the cultural programme would be provided by the around £12,500 per year the local community raised for its heritage open days.

Council leader, Peter Nutting, said the fund was a wonderful package.

"A lot is going on in Oswestry at the moment. It is going to be a really interesting place in the future," he said.