£4.8M TOWARDS OUR HIGHS STREETS
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Over the next two years another £4.8 million will be ploughed into the borough’s high streets, so they become even better places to meet, shop and do business.
succeeds. Independent traders like myself are the key to a thriving high street.” Building on successes like Nettie of the Gorge, £4.8m of a £16m investment programme will go into phase three of ‘Pride in our High Street’, with £2.5m being invested in the current year – 2021/22. As well as more grants to help new retail businesses, including new digital and environmental grant schemes, the investment programme will pay for improvements to the way our high streets look. That will include buying and renovating empty, run-down, shop premises and then either selling or leasing them – with the money going into a revolving fund to pay for more high street investments. High street Place Plans will be drawn up for each town, working with town councils and other partners, to tackle issues that have a negative impact on high streets, helping them attract more visitors and really thrive now and into the future.
in Jockey Bank, “but I wasn’t getting the footfall I needed – the passing trade that I would get from a shop,” said Lisa. “I needed to be on the high street, but there was no way I could afford it. A grant from ‘Pride in Our High Street’ made all the difference, enabling me to take the business to the next level.” The £9,000 start-up grant enabled her to lease shop premises at 31 High Street in Ironbridge. “I now have people popping in because they see my shop front as they walk along the high street. It is making all the difference; I will be running flower arranging classes in the run-up to Christmas and I have dates already fully-booked. “None of this would have been possible without the grant from the council. I think it’s wonderful that they are going to invest more in our high streets – my business is proof that it
While other local authorities have bemoaned the “death” of the high street in the face of internet shopping, Telford & Wrekin Council has backed independent traders who have proved the borough’s high streets can thrive again. Through the council’s Pride in Our High Streets programme, a series of grants to back budding entrepreneurs and their businesses has seen 30 empty retail premises brought back into use, creating more than 160 local high street jobs so far across Wellington, Oakengates, Ironbridge, Dawley, Madeley and Newport. Nettie of the Gorge is a prime example of what ‘Pride in Our High Street’ can achieve. A floristry business created by Lisa Kidd-Perry who was made redundant during Covid, launched the business from a workshop
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