'Towns tsar' in Greenock call to action over £20m funding plan

The district is one of 75 across the country due to receive £20 million over the next decade as part of a £1.5 billion funding package from Westminster for community-driven projects.

Members of a new town board, set to be finalised in the coming weeks, will canvass opinions and ideas from the public to inform the long-term vision for the financial support, with priorities including making Greenock safer and more secure, tackling low-level crime, improving the high street and town centre, dealing with vacant shops and improving local connectivity.

Adam Hawksbee, confirmed as interim chair of the Towns Unit by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the beginning of the year, visited Inverclyde on Friday to speak to local representatives and better understand their needs.

Adam Hawksbee (Image: George Munro)

Mr Hawksbee told the Telegraph: "This isn't a project in which we're asking people to have faith in others to make decisions, we're putting the investment power in their hands to shape the future of this place.

"The thing that is different about this project is they don't need to put their faith in people like me from Westminster or Whitehall, not even in the council or authority figures; my real message to them is to get involved to get their voice heard through the town board.

"Between April and August, once that town board is set up and they have to submit a vision and a plan, we're giving a bunch of investment to the council and to the town board to run a big public conversation.

"It's at that point, when people that are really suffering at the moment but have an idea for a service, for a project for investment that could turn things around and make their lives better, that's when they need to let it be known.

"If it doesn't get in the first year's funding, and this is a ten-year project, there will be opportunities in the next years."

READ MORE: Inverclyde councillors appointed to board which will direct £20m regeneration

The think tank director addressed some of the key issues currently facing Greenock and Inverclyde, such as depopulation, child poverty and high crime rates, and said that the endowment-style funding projects can 'build community capacity' to overcome these challenges.

Pressed on the lack of investment and opportunities in the region, and the recent outflow of major companies from the area, Mr Hawksbee said a focus of the funding is on 'building on the past but not being beholden to it', with spending on grassroots community activity inspiring fresh industry and employment chances.

He added: "The thing that really struck me is how impressive some of the buildings are here, some of the architecture you've got, the bones of this place that point to the real pride that clearly is here and is in the foundations.

"What this funding is going to try and do is make sure that at the community level there's work to rebuild a sense of pride and a sense of purpose.

"I know that's a real priority for the politicians here. They want to rebuild that pride and make this a place where people want to live and stay.

"For a long time, the focus nationally in increasing economic growth has been on cities and there's a good reason for that. A lot of growth internationally is in big, dense, urban centres and that will continue. It's therefore right that when we think about towns, some of that work is about helping people access jobs in these cities.

"But the problem if you just focus on the cities is many of those towns fall away. Young people leave, businesses leave, a lot of the investment goes away. As well as the national focus on cities, you need to have a bit of a counterweight, you need to have a focus on towns."

The Long Term Plan for Towns funding is additional to the £20m Levelling Up cash for the redesign of the A8 and bullring roundabout, and the £3.2m allocated to the West Blackhall Street regeneration project.