Thumbs up to £19m grant for 14 exciting Lincoln projects

City of Lincoln Council accepted the government’s £19 million grant announced in the Chancellor’s Budget last week.

The money will go towards funding 14 projects across the city including the Drill Hall, Lincoln City FC and the Sincil Bank Green Corridor.

However, some disappointment was expressed in the Lincoln Town Deal Board on Friday as Lincoln originally asked for £24 million to fund the projects, but received five million less.

Originally, a programme of schemes to support delivery of a carbon neutral target by 2030, including a construction retrofit project and “green recovery grant” were in the projects, but these have since been removed with the addition of a Greyfriars project.

However, other funds outside of the £19 million from government will go towards these schemes, dedicating more time to the other projects within the £19 million plan.

New projects can no longer be added to the 14, but projects can be removed.

Jo Walker, Assistant Director of Growth at City of Lincoln Council said: “Significant progress has been made with some of these projects, and progress in all has been made fairly well in all instances.”

She added: “What’s going to be absolutely key now to our selection is the deliverability of those projects and value for money.”

Lord Patrick Cormack, former Conservative MP and committee member said: “We did ask for significantly more money, sadly we haven’t got it.

“What we do must be done well, we don’t want corners to be cut and quality to be damaged. What we do must be something we can all feel proud of for Lincoln.”

The grant will get final approval in the council’s executive next Wednesday and it has until March 24 to sign the £19 million approval to government.

May 24 is the deadline for the final selection of projects.

Projects in Lincoln (update):

1. Drill Hall – Maintenance and refurbishment works started in January 2021 prior to more significant investment
2. Hospitality Events and Tourism Institute – Meetings have been carried out with Visit Lincoln to discuss priority activities post COVID-19
3. Central Market  – Restoration and re-purposing of a heritage asset to deliver a modern and diversified market offer, viability work undertaken and consultation underway
4. Sincil Bank – Highway and environmental improvements to support the wider regeneration of the area and improve connectivity with the City Centre, no progress yet
5. Greyfriars (Franciscan friary) – Project development underway, meetings with NL Heritage Fund taking place
6. Store of Stories – Creation of a membership-based food supermarket, linked with support services to help improve quality of life for the most vulnerable, charity discussions
7. Barbican Creative and Maker Hub – Restoration of a redundant heritage asset to deliver bespoke workspaces for the creative sector, business plan near completion
8. Health and Wellbeing Centre  – A new facility which will include support services for employment and workforce productivity alongside training and qualifications in mental health, city centre location preferred rather than Monks Road
9. Tentercroft Street – Regeneration of the site next to the Transport Hub to deliver new workspace and living areas, design work underway
10. Wigford Way – Transformation of a key connecting route within the city centre, to improve walking, cycling and public realm benefits and promote future commercial development, no progress yet
11. The Hive – Re-purposing of redundant public estate to deliver city living, digital learning and workspaces, negotiations ongoing
12. Lincoln Made Smarter – Specialist support for local Small to Medium Enterprises to move to smarter working practices, including digital technology, new project sponsor
13. Lincoln Connected  – Supports the digitalisation of the high street and heritage offer to improve the visitor experience through things like, smart signage, lighting of city landmarks, events and the “Lincoln Creates” scheme which showcases the creative sector, ongoing progress
14. Lincoln City FC Stadium and Community Hub – Redevelopment of the stadium to deliver a hub for training to address local needs alongside improving the visitor experience, 90% of 3G pitch regenerated for completion this month