Burnham Mayor Ken Smout said Wednesday’s decision by Sedgemoor District Council’s Executive represents a “really significant milestone” for the town.
The funding will come from Tesco to offset the impact of its recent store expansion, the Town Council and the former South West Regional Development Agency.
.HOW THE £440k WILL BE SPENT:
Lighting improvements in Burnham High Street and Victoria Street
Hanging basket posts
Additional cycle racks in High Street
Highways improvements: Coloured paviers between Adam Street and Cross Street £20k; Coloured road surface £20k & maintenance £20k; Finger post signs £10k, street furniture, including £1k for a central electricity point for events, plus £30k
Publicity
Roller shutter project £5k plus shopfront improvement grants £25k
New public notice boards (High Street & Victoria Street)
Town Centre Manager and projects
Contingency to cover additional costs as figures are estimates
“After many years of delays to regenerate the town, we’re now in a position to introduce some positive changes that will really enhance Burnham town centre,” Cllr Smout told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
The scheme includes new lighting in the town centre, a new paved area in the centre of the High Street for town centre events plus new notice boards, signs and improvements to shopfronts plus more publicity.
“There’s a lot of work to do to put this in place, but this is a key milestone for Burnham that will make the town centre more vibrant for shoppers and businesses,” added Cllr Smout.
“Now we have an agreement to go ahead, we need to discuss the detail in coming weeks with Sedgemoor around who will be employed to compete the work, establish what contracts are needed, and understand the roles, policies and priorities.”
The proposals on how to spend the £440,000 were drawn up by a committee of Burnham people that met over several months. They represented Burnham Chamber of Trade, Burnham Town Team, the Town Council and members of the public and businesses.
