October 23, 2012 7.15 am This story is over 137 months old

Lincoln gets its share of Portas Pilot

Moving on: Lincoln becomes Town Team Partner in the Mary Portas initiative to regenerate the country’s High Streets.

Lincoln has been announced as a Town Team Partner in the Mary Portas initiative to regenerate the country’s High Streets.

The government received more than 320 applications from towns across the UK to become a pilot in the project and benefit from £100,000 of funding.

Lincoln was not selected in the first 15 towns to take part in the pilot, with Market Rasen chosen as the pilot town for Lincolnshire.

However, due to the large number of bids, MPs representing the towns not chosen were asked to come forward and sign a national pledge to become a Town Team Partner.

Lincoln MP Karl McCartney signed the pledge to recognise Lincoln Business Improvement Group (Lincoln BIG) as a Town Team Partner.

Each Town Team receives £10,000 via the local authority to help put elements of their High Street improvement plan into action.

Karl McCartney said: “I had been very disappointed that we were unsuccessful in our application to become a Portas Pilot, but by accepting Lincoln BIG’s application – which I understand was one of 326 applications – to become a Town Team Partner, the Government has fulfilled its commitment that no town who applied to be a Portas Pilot would be left behind.”

Matt Corrigan, Chief Executive of Lincoln BIG, added: “This is great news, it recognises the strong established partnership we have in Lincoln and the good ideas in our pilot application and will allow us to deliver at least part of these.

“It’s also great that a large number of towns up and down the county are now part of the town team initiative and can work together to improve our town centres.

“Lincoln’s bid focused on improving our city centre markets offer and this means that we are able to revisit our plans and ideas in this regard and get the ball rolling.”