Coastal Revival Fund Update
This is mainly for urban and rural coastal members in England.
I attended a meetings last week at which the “grossly oversubscribed” £3m DCLG Coastal Revival Fund was discussed. Other key bits of “intelligence” gained were that:
- The announcements for awards of up to £50k each anticipated in late October or early November will now not be made until late November, subject to Ministerial agreement. I.e. not before then and it may conceivably be even later if Minister or other event (CSR announcements?) decree it. The principle issue driving the delay appears to be volume of applications.
- As the money allocated has technically all to be spent by 31 March 2016 the ability of the schemes put forward to achieve that is being considered as an additional criteria within the selection process. That suggests anything involving major capital works is now much less likely to be approved, whereas bid that had, and clearly articulated a short timescale, are more likely to be considered. That’s my interpretation and not a guarantee.
If you think you are still in the running you would be well advised to do some contingency planning around the practicalities of hitting the ground running in the weeks immediately running up to Christmas, or in the early day of the New Year. It would be a shame to be selected and then miss out because of the short window of opportunity granted.
Hardly the ideal scenario even for those lucky enough to be selected. Regrettable it’s the inevitable consequence of creating a new one-off fund in a hurry. However, never look a gift horse in the mouth; coastal destinations in England should be eternally grateful to outgoing Minister’s for coming up with the idea and to DCLG officials for delivering on it and doing so against all the odds and Treasury inspired hurdles attached to it.
Original announcements background etc. can be accessed via:
https://britishdestinations.net/new-funding/coastal-communities-fund/coastal-revival-fund/
British Destinations 