Boston regeneration plans push ahead as leaders vow to deliver ‘community-led’ improvements

The £20 million Pride in Place funding was allocated to the town to be spent over a 10-year period after it was accepted nationally that the area had been ‘left behind’.

Members of Boston Borough Council’s cabinet have now agreed for the authority to be the ‘accountable body’ (meaning it will oversee the management and use of the public funds), with the Boston Neighbourhood Board in charge of allocating where the money will be spent and seeing through a vision for the future.

At a meeting on Tuesday (May 5), deputy leader of the borough council, Coun Mike Gilbert (Blue Revolution – Staniland) said: “In essence, today’s decision moves us from planning into delivery, with a governance structure that is robust, transparent and proportionate to a programme of this scale.

“This is a major long-term investment in Boston’s future. These recommendations ensure that we can unlock the funding, maintain strong financial control and deliver a program that is both community-driven and council assured.”

Coun Callum Butler (Independent – Old Leake and Wrangle) stressed that the Pride in Place money had been specifically earmarked for the town of Boston and not the wider borough.

He added: “The geographical boundary of the Pride in Place programme has been determined and agreed with the UK Government.

“It is therefore a place-specific funding programme that is deliberately targeted on delivering new investment into the town of Boston rather than the wider borough.”

The authority is working with the Boston Neighbourhood Board to deliver the programme and to allocate the funding towards specific projects and organisations in the area.

It wants the money to make the town safer, promote its past and breathe new life into the present day.

At the same meeting, the cabinet approved the allocation of £1.5 million from the Government under the separate Pride in Place Impact Fund to support community projects and grassroot schemes across the wider borough.

Coun Gilbert said: “Targeted grants will be made available to enhance Boston’s public realm and green spaces, strengthen community facilities, support environmental improvements, enable high impact projects across multiple communities and encourage collaborative-community driven regeneration.

“These grants will put funding directly into the hands of community organisations, charities, parish councils, social enterprises and council services, supporting projects that improve green spaces, strengthen community facilities, enhance the public realm and enable high-impact community-led regeneration.

“Grants will be available at both small and large scales to ensure accessibility and flexibility.”

Coun Butler was pleased with the additional funding to support projects in the wider borough.

He added: “I’m delighted that this money can be spent across the whole, as a rural councillor.

“We have some phenomenal groups and organisations in the wider borough and it will be great for them and I’m actively encouraging them – if any of them are listening – to bid for some of this funding – and to our parish councils as well. Let’s get the whole borough looking ship-shape.”

The council said it was working with community groups and local college students to deliver a programme of improvements which local people want.

Coun Chris Mountain (Independent – Wyberton) said: “It is so refreshing to see the next generation having an input into what they believe they want the town to be, because it gets very samey with the same group of people time and time again.

“So, taking a younger approach to what they want their town to develop in is very refreshing.”