Race is on for £10m lottery aid

CASH aid for a major seafront revamp could be made available, provided Rother acts quickly.

Unless the council takes 1m out of its capital reserves as match-funding, it will lose the chance of 10m Lottery aid for two major projects.

Director of services Tony Leonard will urge Monday's Rother cabinet meeting at the Town Hall to take advantage of Living Landmarks grant aid to modernise Bexhill seafront and finance the Robertsbridge Mill Creation and Enterprise Centre.

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If the cabinet agrees it would need to find 10,000 per Lottery application from out of the council's economic regeneration land-banking fund.

The meeting would also need to recommend the council to make the 1m available from reserves even though this would mean the loss of investment income.

Mr Leonard says: "The National Lottery has launched a new initiative based on an earlier, successful project from the Big Lottery Fund.

"The Living Landmarks fund was set up to provide substantial funding for major projects, and is intended to inspire, transform, revitalise and regenerate communities."

Funding themes are:

*Community learning and creating opportunity

*Promoting community safety and cohesion

*Promoting well-being

The funding of a project has to achieve:

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*Getting better life chances and improved access to training and development

*Building stronger communities with active citizens working together to solve problems

*Improve rural and urban environment affording better community access

*Encourage more healthy and active people and communities

The Living Landmarks fund has 140m available of which one project will be selected in the 25-50m range and up to a further nine in the 10-25m range

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A maximum of 75% of Rother's projects would come from Living Landmarks and the minimum grant is 10m, making the minimum total project size in the region of 13.5m.

Applications must be received by January 6.

Those considered eligible will be short-listed and subject to a project review visit.

Projects will be selected after the visit for progression to Stage 2 which provides funding for the project to be developed in detail.

Projects will be finally assessed and those successful will receive grants.

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Mr Leonard says there are two projects in Rother which may be eligible:

*Bexhill Seafront works shown in the 2002 Tim Gale Study

*Robertsbridge Mill Creation and Enterprise Centre.

"Both projects offer the opportunity to support economic and social regeneration, by offering facilities that sit at the heart of their respective communities, providing an attraction to visit, to be involved and to work in; a focal point for people to play or learn and somewhere that inspires and supports the economic revival of the community.

"The seafront is a significant part of the regeneration of Bexhill, underpinned by the renovation and re-launch of the De La Warr Pavilion and the regeneration plans for the town centre.

"Whilst the seafront retains many fine elements, over time there has been a gradual erosion of the quality and character of many of its unique features.

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"The Tim Gale study provided a comprehensive scheme of improvements to the seafront and would form the basis of an application for funding.

"The aim is to make significant improvements to the seafront between the Clock Tower and Galley Hill.

"The main thrust of the proposals are:

*Improvements to the promenade creating a 'Seven Sisters' feature along West Parade

*Refurbishing and extending the Colonnade

*Improving the area north of the Marina Arcade and enhancing the arcade building

*Landscaping improvements to the east along the promenade

*Lighting scheme

*Public art

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"Following publication of the Hastings and Bexhill Seafront Strategy earlier this year, a working group of members has been set up to make recommendations as to how the Tim Gale proposals should be implemented.

"There is therefore already a good deal of work being done to prepare a project implementation programme, however the principal obstacle to implementation hitherto has been the sourcing of the necessary level of resources.

"The "Living Landmarks" fund offers a unique opportunity, not only to implement the Tim Gale proposals but also to build upon the vision through further engagement with the people of Bexhill, to create a unique environment for the 21st Century."

The director of services says of the two projects: "To match against the minimum 10m of Lottery grant funding, Rother would need to secure a minimum of 3.34m in matching funding from other partners.

"In addition, it is likely that a minimum of 1 million would need to be ring-fenced from the council's capital reserves from 2007 onwards."

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