Nidderdale Plus Community Hub has been successful in winning funding from the final round of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Vibrant & Sustainable High Streets Fund. The fund, launched by Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith (pictured above), set out to find ambitious, innovative proposals designed to breathe new life into York and North Yorkshire’s high streets. Its aim is to create thriving, inclusive spaces that reflect local character, meet community needs, and inspire lasting pride.
The bid put forward by Nidderdale Plus, after holding meetings with local Nidderdale businesses in the summer and autumn last year, seeks to do three things: set up a new Nidderdale Business Association; plan and organise a series of annual events; and create a Nidderdale brand that can be used by any business or group based in Nidderdale to market their activities/initiatives.
Part of the preparation for going forward with assembling the bid was holding a much larger Christmas event in Pateley Bridge last year. This was a great success and saw three markets, a lantern parade, a Christmas Tree Festival and a children’s trail taking place over three days.
Helen Flynn, CEO of Nidderdale Plus, said “We were absolutely thrilled to be successful with this bid and bring funding to Nidderdale that can help improve the local economy. The work starts now in bringing together Nidderdale businesses—of any size—to collaborate and come together to make the most of this opportunity and we do welcome any business to come forward and work with us. One of our first tasks is to recruit a Project Officer, so do go to this page of our website to find the job description and application form. The closing date for appications is Monday 1st June.
Phase three of the Vibrant & Sustainable High Streets Fund allocated £2.4million across 27 projects in York and North Yorkshire. Nidderdale Plus was awarded £80k to deliver an ambitious and innovative programme of initiatives and activities across the 16-month period of the project. Watch this space for how we are progressing with the project………!
