West Lindsey announces £53 million investment plan

West Lindsey District Council is to spend £53 million over the next five years on a capital investment programme.

The announcement comes in the same week that the Government revealed a further £29.5 million for Greater Lincolnshire, in addition to £126 million approved since 2014.

West Lindsey’s plans includes £7 million on leisure provision and £5 million on a development partnership for regeneration in Gainsborough.

But it will also include £1.4 million on housing – including bringing empty homes across the district back into use – £3 million on helping disabled people to stay in their homes via Disabled Facilities Grants, and £15 million on commercial property investment.

It was unclear if West Lindsey’s “commercial property investment” forms part of the package for Greater Lincolnshire, as both funding announcements are believed to include an initiative to set up a Food Enterprise Zone at Hemswell Cliff. Another “agri-business cluster” is being planned in Grimsby.

West Lindsey announced its funding package in the council’s budget report on Monday (March 6, 2017), while the Government announced the funding package for Greater Lincolnshire yesterday (Thursday, March 9, 2017).

Cllr Jeff Summers, Leader of West Lindsey District Council, (pictured) said he hoped the plans would attract about £100m of inward investment to the district over the next five to ten years.

“We still need to be creative in how we fund this, but we hope the programme will potentially deliver £0.9 million of revenue benefit,” he added.

The outcome of the local government financial settlement for 2017/18 means the council still needs to make further reductions in its net expenditure, of about £1.2m over the next two years. It is planning to increase its Council Tax demand by 2.52% in 2017/18, and said that would be less than 10p a week for a Band D property.

The Growth Deal funding for Greater Lincolnshire also includes a £5 million new Centre for Health Science at Lincoln University and £6.5 million towards the infrastructure and services to help create the agri-business clusters at Hemswell Cliff, Grimsby and Holbeach. An additional initiative to boost local skills is projected to cost £6.5 million.

Other schemes to benefit from what is referred to as the Growth Deal 3 are:

  • Gainsborough Growth Project (£4m)
  • Junction improvements on the A46 around Lincoln (£2.5m)
  • A17 Sutterton Roundabout Scheme (£1m)
  • Sleaford Growth Project (£2m)
  • Advanced Engineering Research and Development Centre, Lincoln (£1.95m)

 

While welcoming the announcement, Ursula Lidbetter, chair of Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “In every experience I have had of backing local people and local initiatives, the results have exceeded expectations.”

6 Comments

  1. Carol Barnes

    I wonder how much will come Caistor’s way? Always on the fringe of West Lindsey and last to be considered I always thought.

    Reply
  2. sue neave

    As per usual Gainsborough seems to figure heavily in the funding stakes – wonder where Caistor fits in.

    Reply
  3. H Grant

    Do they not realise that there is life beyond the boundaries of Gainsborough? Is any of this bounty coming Caistor’s way? Don’t hold your breath!

    Reply
  4. Beverley Sheridan

    I agree with the previous comments. Caistor is Cinderella again I expect.

    Reply
  5. Michael Stockwood

    So WLDC intend to spend £53 million over the next 5 years, will Caistor see any of it? Not a chance. We in Caistor are close to an airport and the motorway to the midlands but we remain the poor relations, can we not have a growth project and a commercial property investment programme to include the old council offices that have been empty for many years and the CO-OP in Caistor (don’t get involved CTC please) Our West Lindsey District Councillors need to be more proactive in this respect.

    Reply
  6. Callum Lane

    People of Caistor…once you manage to silence the ‘say no to everything’ brigade you may start to attract funding too. But there wont be a penny for just maintaining the status quo. We cant have it both ways, that’s not how the world works any more. If there was a shred of public support for Gainsborough scale growth there would be funding to match. But there isn’t.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

error: Content is protected !!