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Millions to be spent on improving our towns
Extra money has been allocated to town centre regeneration after funding was withdrawn from an environmental project.
When the Government announced that there would be a reduction in growth area funding for north Northamptonshire, the North Northants Development Company looked at all the projects that were due to get under way.
It has now decided not to grant funding of just under 600,000 to the
River Nene Regional Park.
Instead, the money will be added to cash already allocated for the main town centres in the north of the county to try to regenerate them.
Kettering will receive 130,000, Wellingborough will get 100,000, Corby has been allocated 80,000 and Rushden the remaining 49,090.
The move to re-assess where the money was being spent came after Northamptonshire County Council was told by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning that the funding for 2010-11 would be reduced from 11.1m to 6.3m.
North Northants Development Company's head of investment and marketing Nick Bolton said that for the most part, the projects that have already been planned will still go ahead.
He said: "The Growth Area Funding Committee had to take a prioritised look at what was needed to ensure our keys projects were still
supported, particularly the town centre regeneration projects.
"The bid for River Nene Regional Park funding was not as strong.
"The money which has been reallocated will go to existing projects to make sure they are not affected by the cuts."
He said they had early notice that there would be a funding shortfall which helped to make sure things stayed on track.
Mr Bolton went on to say: "With very few exceptions, we are still going ahead with all our projects.
"Some elements have had to be put back and some have been re-scheduled but because we had very focused plans, it's not been affected much.
"The remaining money has come through a combination of things, from local authorities putting in some money themselves, to changing the timescales."
The money is designed to help the area cope with 52,100 new homes that must be provided in the north of the county by 2021 to meet government targets.
Northamptonshire County Council agreed to reallocate the money earmarked for the River Nene project to the four main towns in north Northamptonshire, and the money will be used to make sure projects are not delayed by the funding cuts.
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Weather for Kettering
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
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