Bolton awarded more money to attract people back to high streets

Bolton Council has been awarded over £250,000 pounds from the government to attract people back to the boroughs' high streets safely.

This money will go towards making the town centre a more attractive place to visit with planters on Newport Street and more outside seating in Nelson Square, and more.

This is being described as the "first step in the project" of regenerating the town

Gerry Brough, the director of place at the council, submitted a report to the government for Bolton to receive a slice of £56 million worth of funding from the Ministry of Communities and Local Government's plan to attract people back to high streets safely known as the Welcome Back Fund.

Bolton has been awarded £253,140 from this Welcome Back Fund which is to be put towards "initiatives to build confidence and encourage people back into the town centres safely once the Covid-19 restrictions started to lift," according to a council report.

This money is set to be combined with other funds previously announced to help high streets across the borough recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

This includes £199,737 remaining from the 'Reopening High Streets Safely Fund', which when combined with the Welcome Back Fund, gives the council a total of £452,877 which must be spend by March 31 2022.

The £1m awarded at the start of the pandemic through the Town Centre Recovery is also still available to be put forward to different initiatives.

The report added: "The report put forward proposals to utilise the monies on various initiatives that would help to welcome the people of Bolton back to a better and safer town and promote local pride and that would continue to support town centre businesses even when restrictions were fully lifted in July."

As part of this Bolton is one of only 70 councils that will benefit from additional support through the High Streets Taskforce, a group of high streets experts who will visit the area to provide advice on how to make changes to ensure high streets across the borough adapt to changing consumer demands and thrive in the years ahead.

Paul Whittingham, assistant director or economic development and regeneration at Bolton Council, said this money will go towards making the town centre look more lively and other incentives to welcome people back to the town centre.

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