Lancashire coastal access scheme lands £1m grant
A grant of £1m has been awarded to a scheme that will improve access to the coast in Lancashire.
The grant will improve the tourism offer and experience for people with disabilities visiting the Fylde, Blackpool and Wyre coasts.
The project includes training courses for local businesses to support people with disabilities, organising new events and the creation of trained volunteer access guides.
The award is one of 16 successful ‘Fast Track’ projects which are receiving a share of £6m Coastal Communities Fund money.
As part of the fifth round of the Coastal Communities Fund, the 16 ‘ready to go’ projects have been selected to start work to transform their coastal communities in 2018 to 2019 before the main round funding becomes available in April 2019.
The chosen projects, which range from a community arts project in South Shields to heritage boat tours in Falmouth’s historic docks, are collectively forecast to create over 1,100 jobs and attract public and private sector co-funding of £2.4m.
Coastal communities minister, Jake Berry MP, said: “It’s really exciting to see money from the Coastal Communities Fund help kick start these shovel ready projects, which have the potential to unlock the barriers to development and growth in our coastal communities.
“Investment in our seaside areas, through projects such as these, will provide nothing short of a New Deal for the Great British coast, creating thousands of jobs, training places and opportunities along the shore.”
The Coastal Communities Fund was established to support coastal projects in the UK deliver sustainable growth and jobs.
Since 2012, the Fund has awarded grants to 295 projects across the UK, totalling over £173 million. This has helped to start almost 500 new businesses and create more than 7,000 jobs – with these figures set to more than double once the projects that are already underway are completed.
The Lancashire Wildlife Trust also received a £71,000 grant towards a £985,000 project to increase nature tourism by working with local businesses to enhance engagement in the nature tourism offer of the Lancashire coast. Events, talks, surveys and workshops will be organised to encourage local communities to champion the coast.
