Andrew has provided the following update on the Goole Town Deal via his Facebook page:
Some residents may have seen the headline in the Goole Times today saying that the Goole Town Deal Bid has been hit by a funding cut.
I am a huge fan of the Goole Times but I am afraid the headline is simply incorrect. We have not had any of our funding from the Government cut.
Towns were invited to apply for up to £25 million from the Government for their town deals but very few actually received that full amount in the final sign off.
Goole was one of very few to actually receive an offer of the full £25 million and that offer still stands.
The confusion behind this headline is that in putting our bid together we actually had a total package of projects totalling over £28 million, with one or two of the projects likely to fall out of the final list by not be deliverable once the full business cases were finalised - or so we thought.
As it turns out, we have been able to move the larger number of projects forwards thanks to some additional partnership working and some slight changes, meaning we will be able to take forward more projects then we initially thought.
Far from being bad news, this is actually good news! We will be moving forward on more projects, including the most difficult and complex, such as the Goole-Snaith-Leeds train service project.
That doesn't mean every project will be deliverable as some will require support from outside partners and other organisations, but we've found a way of making them fit the £25 million we asked for and we're granted.
So, to be clear, NO cut in funding has occurred. The Goole Times is a great paper and the headline is simply one of a bit of confusion I think. Maybe we as a Board should have been a bit clearer too on the process.
No harm done. It's all still good news and full steam ahead for the Goole Town Deal.
Andrew
