Hundreds of thousands of pounds will be spent on upgrading Ellesmere Port community features, thanks to a UK Government funding boost.

Several key projects in the town were successful in winning funding as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund Community and Place, which is a central pillar of the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides funding for local projects to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK.

The biggest slice of funding will go to the Little Sutton community hub project, where £115,000 will be spent over the next year to remodel the existing approach, greenspace and frontage of the community centre, library and bowling green to make them more prominent on Chester Road and improve usage.

More than £43,000 of total grant funding will go towards community garden hubs in the town. The project will create and improve community gardens at Stamford Street Allotments and Chapter Mental Health’s Haven site, through supporting local volunteers and community groups to be engaged in food growing, composting, cooking and nature-based arts and crafts activities.

Further funding will be spent for the Place Partnership project, applied for by Theatre Porto on behalf of the Ellesmere Port Cultural Learning Exchange. A total of £33,750 will be spent on an Arts Council funding application to support the Ellesmere Port and Neston arts sector.

Chester Zoo receives £30,861 for a project titled 'Networks for Nature Wildlife Champions', to galvanise and support social action to improve local neighbourhoods and green spaces, especially in deprived neighbourhoods in Chester and Ellesmere Port.

A total of £44,853 will be spent borough-wide to expand Citizens Advice Cheshire West's volunteer base to enable more people to have expert advice to help them through the cost of living crisis.

Cheshire West and Chester councillor Nathan Pardoe, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Growth, Economy & Regeneration said: “We launched this second open call for projects and I am delighted to announce the successful applicants for this round. The projects build on the awards we funded in June last year.

“We received 64 applications, with a combined grant request of £3.6 million by the deadline at the end of December. Thanks to all who took part, the quality of applications was impressive and far exceeded the available funding. All applications were carefully considered to decide how best to allocate the funds."

All grants are subject to final due diligence checks and grant funding contracts and are for delivery by the end of March 2025.