Orkney Towns Board Chair calls on UK Government to set clear expectations for fund

Chair of the Orkney Towns Board, Stephen Hagan, has said that work on the Orkney Towns Fund is continuing, despite follow-up information from the UK Government remaining outstanding.  
In March it was announced that the county was to receive £20m of Levelling Up funding from the UK Government.  
 
The funding came specifically from the Levelling Up Fund’s ‘Long-Term Plan for Towns’ funding stream, which sees ten-year endowment-style funds allocated to local areas, with Boards then set up locally to make decisions on how the funds should be spent. 
 
With tight turnaround timescales set by the UK Government, a Towns Board quickly formed, and work began on pulling together a local vision and action plan for the fund in time for a 1 November deadline. 
 
In July, the Board was advised by the new UK Government that more time was available and to await “further details on next steps and confirmation of the revised timetables.”  - with no further information forthcoming since then. 
 
Throughout, a comprehensive review of existing and potential future plans, issues and project ideas for the action plan has been carried out including opportunities for the local community and community groups to feed into that process – with over 700 ideas in the mix already.  
 
Commenting on the delay put in place by the UK Government, Stephen Hagan said: “Whilst the breathing space offered by the delay was welcomed, we are coming to the point now where we need to start hearing more from Government on what is happening next and what their expectations are of us. 
 
“The public engagement on the project has been fantastic. There has been great feedback with a wide range of issues and ideas that the Board could consider for action coming forward. There has also been enough projects being proposed to spend the funding allocation ten times over and our public engagement partners, Stromness-based Aquatera, now have the unenviable task of sifting through those ideas in order to support the Board in identifying the most effective areas of work that we could focus for the Town Board Vision and Plans.
 
“That’s not to say though that the ideas and issues gathering stage is over.  There are still opportunities to submit ideas online at www.orkney.gov.uk/OTB. 
 
“We are undoubtedly keen to move this work along – and I’d call on the UK Government to support us in that by making their next steps and expectations clear as soon as possible.” 

As part of the public engagement the Board had a stand at the County Show, with the £50 BID voucher won by Emily Brooks