Bidding for the Mayor's High St Fund
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What is it?
The Mayor’s High Street Fund is aimed at helping London High Streets become better places for local communities. The High Street Fund has been available since 2011, however this is the first year in which funding has been made available to local community groups such as EGRA. £150million has been invested so far in 130 town centres and high streets.
For the current funding round The Mayor is pledging up to £20,000 and up to 75% to the most interesting projects. To give some idea of the competition, during the last funding round 83 groups submitted ideas and only 17 of these received funding from the Mayor.
Why is EGRA interested?
We've developed a manifesto which sets out improvements that we'd like to see the council make to our streets. The analysis, which EGRA presented at a recent open meeting, shows the dire state of public realm on Trafalgar Road and Woolwich Road. Developing the manifesto and presenting this to our councillors is the first step. Showing our commitment by kick starting improvements allows us to build the momentum around this goal.
We will need more capital than the Mayor’s High Street fund to address changes we would describe as the “hard stuff” such as improvements to road crossings, pavements and railings. So we see this as very much the first phase of improvements. We are also starting to encourage our council to bid for more funding from the Greater London Authority and to use the Community Interest Levy that is given to the council by developers building in the area.
What do we need to get the Mayor’s fund?
In short, we need to pledge our own support for improving our high street. The more people show their support, the more likely our idea will gain interest.
EGRA will present its idea for what we would like to see on Trafalgar Road, so please get in touch to share your ideas. We will present a photomontage and a video on Spacehive presenting our idea and why it is important for Trafalgar Road and the residents of East Greenwich.
We will set out our funding target, the cost breakdown necessary to realise our ideas and when we need to raise the money by.
Once this is done, it is over to the community of East Greenwich to pledge its support on Spacehive. The size of your pledge should reflect how important you feel it is to see improvements on Trafalgar Road.
All or nothing
To be considered for the Mayor’s fund, we will need to have raised 25% of our target by the 29th of June. We must reach our entire target by the date we’ve set or we get nothing, whether this includes the Mayor’s fund or not.
So, if you would like us to make the first steps as a community to improve Trafalgar Road, please pledge your support.
Key deadlines
1st of June – “Improving Trafalgar Road” will be up on Spacehive 29th of June – We need to have raised 25% of our target 31st of August – We need to have reached 100% of our target August/September – We find out whether the Mayor is backing our project 1st of March 2016 – Our idea for Trafalgar needs to be completed
As local residents, how can you get involved?
Share your ideas. What would you like to see happen on Trafalgar Road? Would like to see more trees, planters and benches or perhaps smartening up shop fronts? Whatever your idea is, make your voice heard by emailing EGRA and most of all make sure you pledge your support for improving Trafalgar Road.
