Redditch and Alcester miss out on Portas money

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BOTH Redditch and Alcester have failed again in their bid for government funding to revive their town centres.

The latest round of Portas Pilot Towns was announced today (Wednesday) with Redditch and Alcester failing to make the 15 town shortlist, along with over 350 others. Both were also overlooked during the first selection stage.

They were bidding for a share of £1.5million as well as support from retail guru Mary Portas and Whitehall.

Redditch Town Centre Partnership had submitted a revised bid focusing on creating a community hub to help promote the town as well as a heritage trail, community arts centre and events programme to attract visitors to the town.

There is hope some elements of the bid can still be revived though as due to the large number of entries, the Government has created a £5.5million pot which individual projects can bid for money from. Redditch Borough Council has also announced it plans to hold a separate investigation into creating an arts centre for Redditch.

The TCP's original plan for a business start-up support package was rejected in the first round of bidding but that will still go ahead thanks to a £100,000 from the Government's High Street Innovation Fund and details are set to be released next month.

Alcester's bid focused on running the High Street more like a business with the creation of a management role to help co-ordinate promotion, events and activities.

Stratford District Council's plan to create an e-toolkit for the High Street, which would have been trialled in Studley, was also unsuccessful.

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