More than £70,000 has been spent on giving a row of Newton Aycliffe shops a makeover.
Funding from GAMP – to the tune of £30,000 – has been used to enhance Neville Parade, which was built in the 1950s and in much need of regeneration and improvements.
Supported by the Area Action Partnership, the scheme included increasing the number of parking spaces, replacing the existing footpaths with high quality paving flags, more litter bins and cycle stands and the re-cladding of the shop canopy.
Durham County Council managed the scheme with local housing provider livin.
Great Aycliffe and Middridge Partnership (GAMP) supported the project with £30,715 from councillors John Moran and Sarah Iveson’s neighbourhood budgets.
Additional funding of £20,000 came from Durham Council’s Urban and Rural Renaissance Initiative, with a further £20,000 coming from the Highways Local Area Programme and £2,600 from livin.
The work has been carried out after local residents and businesses raised concerns that the shops could attract more trade and a revamp may help.
Brian Riley, GAMP coordinator, said: “This is a fantastic example of different organisations coming together in response to local needs.
“The Great Aycliffe and Middridge Partnership, colleagues within Durham County Council and livin, have funded this project as a direct response to issues identified by the community and local businesses.”
● Pictured is Councillor John Moran, who helped to fund the Neville Parade makeover, with GAMP Community Development Project Officer Adam White.
2 Comments
Ian
August 23, 2012 at 7:02 amIts a shame that councillors John Moran and Sarah Iveson could not consult with the shops before they decided to try and raise there profile and shelf praise themselves. The fact that ALL the shops in Neville Parade have lost sales and customers during the extensive “revamp”, has failed to be mentioned along with the loss of jobs due to this also didnt get mentioned. There was NO consultation with the shop keepers prior to the plans being drawn up and NO consultation to how the work would be carried out. The project took twice the time they said it would and the result is not any better for the shop keepers. So basically a waste of money, but I guess the look of the area and the self praising of 2 old councillors “John Moran and Sarah Iveson” is the most important thing.
Peter Hay
August 24, 2012 at 8:25 pmA waste of money, everybody I have spoken to thought that it was good that the road was getting widened, as it would help with the parking and cause fewer accidents, then we discovered that it was like for like, no road widening just plenty of space on the footpath to sit and watch accidents. A waste of money and an Opportunity wasted. Some may say the parking spaces created outside the Community Centre create extra parking, safer but not really extra, as cars used to park on the footpath, and still do on the other side of the road.