Moray Council allocates £1.5 million to regenerate town centres including Keith, Buckie and Dufftown
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
MORAY Council has allocated £1.5 million of external funding for town centre regeneration schemes across the region.
Projects in Aberlour, Buckie, Dufftown, Forres and Keith have all received funding having already prepared town centre improvement plans.
A further £268,000 will also be made available for town centre businesses in Moray through a grant scheme which is due to open soon.
The initiative will support business start-ups and pop up shops, and bring vacant premises back into use.
Councillor Marc Macrae (Fochabers Lhanbryde, Conservative), Depute chair of Moray Council’s Planning and Regulatory Services Committee, said: “This is an extremely challenging time for our town centres but this funding allocation is a positive and I welcome the investment and the work that’s been undertaken by the council to seek the much-needed funding for improvements.
“It seems likely that our town centres continue to face an uphill battle which is why it’s so important we continue to think creatively about how best the council can maximise the impacts of its efforts to support them.”
Just under £900,000 of the funding will be allocated for 2023/24.
Aberlour, Buckie, Dufftown, Forres and Keith will receive a combined total of £200,000 from the Scottish Government's Economic Recovery Fund.
Meanwhile, £466,000 from the Place Based Improvement Fund will go towards improving South Street in Elgin, town centre signage across Moray, conservation area grant schemes and business grants.
Around £195,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will go towards a town centre officer for the Moray Town Centre Taskforce led by the Moray Chamber of Commerce, Plainstones Fountain restoration, Forres Heritage and Conservation Scheme and business grants.
A total of £35,000 from the Town Centre Capital Fund has also been allocated towards Forres for regeneration and economic growth.
And for 2024/25, a further £670,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund has been allocated.
This will go towards the Forres Heritage and Conservation Scheme, small-scale public realm and partnership projects and business grants.
