Published at 13:03, Friday, 30 July 2010

COUNCILLORS hope to avoid a cash crisis for the marina and marina village projects by obtaining money from Europe.

A committee meeting at Barrow Borough Council heard the original government funding which had been intended for the project is no longer available and that other options are now being examined.

Councillor Tony Callister, a Labour member of the council who chairs its corporate services scrutiny committee, told Wednesday’s meeting that new funding, including European grants or partnerships between local government and private companies, had to be considered.

And Cllr Callister later told the Evening Mail: “We will be looking at all types of funds that are available. Funding options that we are examining include local partnerships with private industries. We are not particularly moving away from central government funding as we still want them to contribute to this project.

“I would attribute any blame for the delay to the coalition government for scrapping the regional development agencies. These funds workedparticularly well for towns like Barrow-in-Furness.”

The council is reacting to the new coalition’s government decision to scrap the Northwest Regional Development Agency. The agency was involved in a number of regeneration projects in Barrow, including the town centre revamp.

Any funds that are provided by the European Union would have to be matched by the government, and Liberal Democrat MEP for the North West Chris Davies has warned that European money may be difficult to access.

Mr Davies said: “There isn’t a government in Europe that is keen to contribute at the moment. The European funds in any project only represents a very small part of expenditure. The total budget for the EU is only about the same as the NHS and is relatively small in relation to that of the 27 member states.” There is still funding available from Westminster for development projects and the coalition government is due to launch new schemes within the next two years.

Money could be sourced from the Home and Communities Agency – which funds affordable housing projects in England – and the Regional Growth Fund – a £1bn scheme that aims to help enterprise – could be used to buy land.

More than 600 jobs could be created by the Marina and Marina Village projects and the council and organisers are keen to ensure there are as few delays as possible.

Councillor Dave Pidduck, leader of the Labour group on the council, stressed the importance of the project to the community.

He said: “It is a life-changing project for this borough. I think the obvious effect a delay would have is a certain amount of demoralisation. We’ve lived with this project for a number of years now. It’s been an important part of people’s lives. Any delay to it will have a negative effect in terms of the town.”

He also expressed concern that funding for the project has not yet been secured.

He added: “At the moment nobody actually has an answer as to where the funding will come from. We don’t know what the shape of the local enterprise partnerships will be, what kind of responsibility they will have, even how many members will be on the partnerships. The length of time it will take to actually set them up as a viable partnership could cause delays.Obviously this is something that is of great concern.”

Bob Pointing, programme director of Barrow Regeneration, said that the organisers are still committed to the project but that lack of funds is likely to cause a delay to the planned Waterfront Business Park.

He said : “There isn’t the funding available for the marina itself. We have decided to focus on the housing first and hope that the marina will follow. We will be applying for the central government funds when they become available but we are aware that this could take up to two years to materialise. Any EU funding would have to be part of a wider funding application as it has to be matched by central government.

“Everyone is committed to the marina. It may have to be delayed, but it will still be delivered.”

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk