24/07/12

Black Country LEP invests Growing Places Fund monies in regeneration of tourist attraction

The multi-million pound regeneration of Dudley’s iconic Castle Hill has moved closer to reality after proposals for a 1,000-space visitor car park were given the green light for funding

The Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has supported Dudley Council’s £600,000 application for Growing Places funding to enable infrastructure work of a new car park to be created.

This will kick-start the development of a major project to create one single visitor entrance to Dudley Zoological Gardens, Black Country Living Museum and Dudley Canal Trust.

It is anticipated the site expansion and additional visitor numbers will create 480 new jobs on the site.

The new car park forms part of a wider regeneration scheme set to transform Castle Hill and compliments the £10.1million investment made towards the end of 2011 through the European Regional Development Fund with Dudley Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Dudley Zoological Gardens.

As a huge scale transformation, the plans will almost double visitor numbers to Dudley’s major tourists attractions to over one million people each year, create jobs and improve the local economy.

The LEP has a total of over £14 million of Growing Places funding to allocate to worthy causes in order to help kick-start developments. The allocation to the Castle Hill site is the second announcement detailing where funding will be spent. This follows quickly on the heels of the recent decision that £500,000 will go to site investigation works at the Darlaston half of the Black Country Enterprise Zone.

Paul Brown, private sector lead for access the finance on the LEP board, said:

“We are pleased to be moving forward with allocating Growing Places funding which is targeted at getting stalled projects off the ground. The decisions to fund the enterprise zone in Darlaston and the Castle Hill infrastructure works will undoubtedly help to kick-start two huge developments for the region.”

Councillor David Sparks, LEP board member and leader of Dudley Council, said:

“The allocation of £600,000 of the Growing Places fund will ensure this important project can move forward in the very near future. Dudley’s Castle Hill site will bring tremendous benefits to the town and to the wider visitor economy of the Black Country.”

The LEP wants to use the funding to address key obstacles that have stalled development in the area. These barriers may have been in relation to infrastructure or site constraints or due to a lack of buildings or assets, which can be overcome with appropriate funding.

To meet the funds objective of generating economic activity in the short term, projects must conform to local policies as well as have planning and other permissions in place. Establishing a revolving fund is another objective for the fund so projects that have a mechanism to repay the investment will also be considered favourably.

Following the allocation of the £1.1 million to the Enterprise Zone and Castle Hill projects the LEP still has around £13 million of Growing Places funding.

Allocations on further sites are expected in the coming weeks before the LEP puts out an open call for applications from the private and public sector to encourage additional projects to come forward.

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