Council approves £20m community focus for Energising Blyth
09 Jul 2024 ARCHIVED (over 3 months old) - view latest news
Partners met in Blyth today to develop a new long-term plan for the town – with the area set to benefit from up to £20m of further government investment.
Around 100 partners in the town from a range of backgrounds have contributed to the development of the plan alongside over 1,500 local people who got involved in helping to identify local priorities for the future of the town as part of a community listening exercise in June.
Of these, 82% backed the key projects identified in the plan to improve the town.
Meanwhile, the Council’s Cabinet has also given its backing to the next stage of Energising Blyth. The £20m funding package over ten years will help to transform the town with a clear focus on community and business-led improvements. Funding will be spent on local priorities; reviving high streets, tackling ASB, improving transport and growing the local economy.
The Blyth Town Board is a partnership that brings stakeholders together to make the town even better and later this month will sign off on the new Plan for the town too.
The support announced through the long-term plan for towns will add to the work already underway through the £90m Energising Blyth regeneration programme to grow, renew and connect the town.
Later this month, the new plan for the town will be submitted to the UK Government to seek formal approval. This follows the announcement of this funding becoming available in September 2023.
Councillor Richard Wearmouth, Deputy Leader of Northumberland County Council, said: “This is very welcome news for Blyth. Significant change is already happening to capitalise on the huge potential of our leading clean energy sector and revitalise the town centre.
“The new welding centre is already open on the Quayside and the new Energy Central Learning Hub opens next door this Autumn creating opportunities for local people to gain the skills they need to secure jobs in clean growth industry.
“The construction of the new Market Pavilion three-screen cinema and improvements to Market Place and Bridge St are well underway and of course we are all looking forward to the Northumberland Line opening to passengers soon too.
“We have listened carefully over the last few months to what local people and our partners in the town want to achieve and this long-term investment from Government means we can go further to transform the town.
“We will be submitting the plans to the Government later this month backed by the Town Board to develop this new additional part of the Energising Blyth Programme.
"A number of pilot projects are already planned this year and this longer-term funding expected to become available for delivery from 2025 onwards.”
Thom Bradley, Board Member of Blyth Town Board and Chief Executive of Community Voluntary Action Blyth Valley, said: “This is a real boost for Blyth helping us to deliver improvements that are much needed.
“The support will accelerate our work together to grow, renew and connect the town, crucially ensuring that local people are included in the opportunities in the town.
“We have a fantastic opportunity to build on Government investment to transform Blyth alongside support from the County Council, North East Combined Authority and a range of other partners.
“I’m grateful to everyone who has given time in recent months to contribute to this new plan. It’s been great to see a number of organisations come forward from sectors including culture, sport and neighbourhood based groups in the town. This gives us a great starting point to develop even more partnership work between the community, public and business sectors in a new phase to deliver real change on issues that are important to the community.
“Blyth is already a fantastic town in so many ways and this investment will make it even better as a place to live, work and invest.”