Several Scots projects to share in £2.1bn of ‘levelling-up’ funding
PLANS to regenerate a former power station in East Lothian have been successful in being awarded funding from a £2.1bn programme to ‘level up’ the UK.
The site of the former Cockenzie Power Station has been allocated £11.3m to make it ‘developable’, including Infilling the former underground power station cooling ducts and repairing a sea wall and make flood protection improvements.
The UK Government programme sees more than 100 UK projects share between them the £2.1bn Levelling Up Fund.
Among them is a new ferry for the Scots island, the Fair Isles.
Says the UK Government, £672 million has been allocated to develop better transport links, £821 million to “kick-start community regeneration” and £594 million to restore local heritage sites.
An UK Government announcement, here, identifies, among the successful projects, an Eden Project North visitor attraction in Morecambe, a new Artificial Intelligence campus in Blackpool, a new rail link in Cornwall (directly connecting Newquay, St Austell, Truro, and Falmouth/Penryn), and a major regeneration of Gateshead Quays and the Sage concert hall, which will include a new arena, exhibition centre, hotels, and other hospitality.
Exercising much of the Scottish media is how Glasgow had none of its bids accepted.
The Scots recipients are:
Aberdeenshire
North Sea connections
£20,000,000
Transformation of disused Arbuthnot House into new museum, library and cultural hub; marine aquarium in Macduff to be modernised and expanded
Dumfries & Galloway
Renovation
£17,698,660
Redundant spaces and buildings converted into new cultural and leisure opportunities
Dundee
Renovation
£14,400,000
Redevelopment of multi-storey car park into sustainable transport hub
East Ayrshire
Kilmarnock
£20,000,000
Refurbishment of 163-year-old Palace Theatre and Grand Hall, and new park near town square
East Lothian
Former Cockenzie power station
£11,267,841
Land freed up for future, green regeneration
Fife
River Leven regeneration
£19,410,000
Regeneration of Riverside Park in Fife and improved access to River Leven with new walking routes
Inverclyde
Greenock
£19,390,000
Overhaul of A78 dual carriageway to reconnect and transform Greenock town centre
North Lanarkshire
Cumbernauld
£9,225,000
Demolition and regeneration of two shopping centres and a vacant office block
Shetland Islands
Fair Isle Ferry
£26,762,313
New roll-on, roll-off ferry
Stirling
Forthside redevelopment
£19,052,300
Regeneration of area
The announcement adds: “The successful bids announced today follows the allocation of £1.7 billion to 105 projects from round one of the Levelling Up Fund in 2021. The government confirmed last year that round two funding would match round one but increased this by more than £400 million after receiving a high number of transformative bids – taking the total allocated so far from the fund to £3.8 billion.”
A third round of funding is expected.
In a separate, prior announcement, here, two days ago, the UK Government has identified several case studies across Scotland that have benefitted, in the recent past, from around £350 million of funding through the Levelling Up Fund and UK Community Ownership Fund to Scotland.
These include a community hub in Kinloch Rannoch (£250,000), re-developing Dumbarton town centre (£19.9m) and over £16 million to “kickstart [the] transformation of [Edinburgh’s] Granton’s waterfront”.
Pictured: Cockenzie Power Station site, Picture credit: Place Design Scotland
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