The final three Town Deal business cases have been approved by Government securing the remaining £15,811,819 of funding for the Multi-User Community Hub, Riverfront Regeneration and Active and Clean Connectivity projects.
King’s Lynn was one of only 100 towns in England that were invited to bid for Towns Fund money. A requirement of the funding bid was the establishment of a Town Deal Board. The King’s Lynn Town Deal Board was established in January 2020.
Graham Purkins, Chief Technical Officer at Merxin and Chair of the Town Deal Board, said:
“Since our inception in January 2020, our role has been to work with officers and members, bringing our private sector business knowledge and experience to the table, and helping to identify and develop projects that we believed would really help secure a positive future for the town. We have been responsible for overseeing the development of the business cases and I am delighted that everyone’s hard work has resulted in us securing the full allocation of £25m for the town. I am very much looking forward to seeing these projects progress through to delivery.”
Cllr Graham Middleton, Deputy Leader of the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, explained:
“Securing £25m from the Towns Fund is only part of the story. Many of the projects also feature match funding, so for a contribution of £1.2m by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, we are securing £33.7m of investment in the town, thanks to contributions from other partners and funders, including Norfolk County Council. I want to thank the Town Deal Board members who have given their time so generously to this project and have helped support officers throughout this process. I must also thank our own officers who have worked hard to develop business cases and consult with stakeholders and the public, to get these schemes supported. “It is also vital that I thank members who have reviewed the business cases and signed them off on behalf of the council. It’s been a challenging process through a challenging period of time, and I am really proud of what has been achieved.”
James Wild MP said:
"The approval of the Town Deal business cases to help boost skills, improve the town centre and riverfront, is an important milestone in levelling up and these projects will make Lynn an even better place to live, work, and visit."
The next steps are to progress with refining and developing the proposals along with further public engagement and consultation, so that the appropriate planning permissions can be obtained and projects progressed.
Information about each of the projects can be found on the Vision King’s Lynn website www.visionkingslynn.co.uk.
The Town Deal projects are:
- Youth and Retraining Pledge
- Rail to River Public Realm project
- St George’s Guildhall and Creative Hub
- Multi-User Community Hub
- Riverfront Regeneration project
- Active and Clean Connectivity Project
The Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk has agreed to consider underwriting a further £3.3m specifically for the Guildhall Project if other funding cannot be secured. This will be the subject of a future report to Cabinet.
