Camborne Town Deal is celebrating the success of Project A-Void, a scheme which will transform the appearance of Camborne town centre. Over £140,000 of funding has been granted within the first ten weeks of the scheme, giving both established and new Camborne businesses the opportunity to improve the high street with important repairs and renovations.
More than two-thirds of the money available has now been allocated to almost 40 businesses, employing over 100 people locally. Any Camborne businesses in the town centre boundary yet to submit their application are encouraged to apply as soon as possible – the applications are being considered on a first come first served basis.
All money must be spent by March 2021, and this is a rare opportunity for commercial properties in the high street area to receive non-repayable funds.
“The interest in Project A-Void is growing with each passing week. We are seeing more and more applications flooding in from business owners and tenants, all looking to make important improvements to their properties.
“We are delighted to be able to help so many Camborne businesses, and it will be exciting to see the effect this has on our town centre. If any businesses out there are still thinking about applying, we’d encourage you to do this ASAP. When the money’s gone, it’s gone – and we want to be able to make sure as many businesses benefit from this funding as possible.”
Anna Pascoe, Chair of the Board of Camborne Town Deal
Local businesses can apply for a refurbishment grant and will know the outcome of their application within four weeks. The average grant award currently stands at £3,750. Project A-Void grants are open to owners of existing businesses, as well as to local entrepreneurs planning to open a new business who need support with refurbishment costs to make their plan a reality.
The scheme is being funded from a pot of accelerator funds released by central government as part of their £3.6billion Towns Fund Deal. There is a project budget of over £220,000 in total available, earmarked for the refurbishment of existing commercial properties and the delivery of streetscape improvements.
Some businesses have chosen to add the funding grant to their own money, in order to undertake larger scale projects – with £165,000 in matched private funding also being committed by the applicants.
The project is being run and managed by Camborne BID, and any potential applicants are invited to get in touch by contacting [email protected] to express their interest in the scheme.
Camborne Town Deal received over 900 responses from local residents and businesses in response to a survey canvassing for opinions about what was needed to make Camborne a better place to live and work – and a key theme emerging from this feedback was the need to improve the appearance of the town centre.
Project A-Void was set up in direct response to this community feedback. The grant application pack can be found here:
Camborne Town Deal Board was formed this summer to identify and implement projects in the town that will help build a prosperous future through innovative regeneration. As one of 100 towns throughout the UK to be selected for the Government’s Towns Fund Deal, Camborne now has the opportunity to bid for up to £25million of funding, and the Board will submit this bid in January 2021.
£750,000 of advance funding was awarded to the Town Deal in an announcement earlier this year, allowing work to start immediately on some regeneration projects. Project A-Void is funded from this accelerator funding.
Launched in November 2019, the Government’s Towns Fund Deal aims to regenerate high streets, boost businesses and improve infrastructure.
We are one of one of only four towns in Cornwall selected to participate and our board of volunteers are all working very hard to develop and submit an investment plan by the end of January 2021 that will make the most of an amazing opportunity to kickstart a vision and transform our community.
The Towns Fund will invest £3.6 billion into over 100 towns, as part of the government’s plan to level up our regions.
Our country is home to some of the world’s most innovative businesses, greatest universities, scientists and entrepreneurs and one of the most dynamic, business-friendly economies in Europe.
However, for too long, the benefits of growth in many of our world renowned cities has not been felt as strongly by communities in our towns and rural areas.
The Government are working with local people to agree proposals for a significant investment of up to £25 million in each place. This funding will help to increase economic growth with a focus on regeneration, improved transport, better broadband connectivity, skills and culture.
