High streets receive £100k Portas boost (From Your Local Guardian)

Epsom and Ewell high streets to receive £100,000 Mary Portas boost

9:20am Friday 27th April 2012 in Top stories By Hardeep Matharu

High streets in Epsom and Ewell are to receive a £100,000 boost thanks to an initiative by the Queen of Shops, Mary Portas.

The borough has been awarded the money from the Government’s high street innovation fund.

The £10million fund, which is being distributed to 100 selected councils, was set up in response to retail expert Mary Portas’s report on how to revive Britain's high streets, published in December last year.

It aims to bring empty shops on English high streets back into use.

Announcing the funding at a council meeting on Tuesday, April 24, Councillor Neil Dallen said : "I am pleased to be able to announce that this borough has been awarded £100,000 from this fund to be used to support economic vitality in the town centre.

"This is fantastic news and comes at a time when this Residents Association council has recently invested considerable time and effort in studying how other areas have achieved successes in this area, reinvigorating the business partnership and building relationships with key businesses."

Coun Dallen said the council received the news last week and is still waiting for confirmation of how the money can be used.

He added: "Our initial thoughts are to try to obtain matched funding from some of our partners so that we end up with a pot of up to £200,000 to be spent on one of our key priorities - to promote the economic vitality of Epsom and Ewell."