Prime Minister's Town Tsar makes 'call to action' over £20million funding for Boston

Adam Hawksbee is shown the site of the Rosegarth Masterplan. He is pictured with Jacqui Bunce, of Boston Town Deal, and Richard Hodgson, Assistant Director - Strategic Projects at the South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership.

The Government’s new Town Tsar has made a ‘call to action’ for Boston people to help shape the future of their town with the new £20 million Levelling Up funding.

Boston is one of 75 UK towns due to each receive £20 million over the next decade as part of a £1.5 billion Government funding package for community-driven projects.

Members of the public are now being urged to share their views on how the money is used to revitalise the town in three key areas – crime and anti-social behaviour, the high street, and travel connectivity.

Mr Hawksbee was given a tour of key sites around the town.

The latest round of funds will be overseen by Boston Town Deal.

Mr Hawksbee, deputy director of the think tank Onward, was recently appointed by PM Rishi Sunak as interim chair of the Towns Unit. He will help deliver the government’s Long-Term Plan for Towns.

Speaking to Lincolnshire World after his visit on Friday, he said: “This is a community call to action where people should come forward over the summer and contact the board with their thoughts and ideas.

“Often, with these types of funding programmes, it would be solely the council or the board who decide how the money is spent – but this is a really amazing opportunity for people to contribute something that will really change Boston. They key thing is for people to get their voices heard.”

Mr Hawksbee was shown the Rosegarth square site where £14.8m is to be spent on rejuvenating the area.

He added: “Boston is already ahead of other towns in that it already has the town deal board in place.” But he added that they will be looking to bring in even more members “focussed on different sections of the community such as the Lithuanian community, and young people.”

Explaining that they are looking at three broad areas for the funding, he went on: “There are three areas that we really want to see investment in. First is safety and security, so we want to make sure places are tackling anti-social behaviour and low level crime and investing in services that prevent that crime. Second is high streets and town centres, and the third is around local connectivity – making it easier to get around Boston and better connections to local villages.”

During his visit, he met with the Boston Town Deal board and was shown various locations – including the brownfield site around the former Job Centre and B&M off Lincoln Lane – which, as previously reported, is to get additional Levelling Up funding to the tune of £14.8 million. This refurbishment scheme is known as the Rosegarth Square masterplan.

Mr Hawksbee added: “I’ve never been to Boston before, but I was struck by the sight all these amazing historic buildings here, and the fantastic architecture. So the town really does have some great foundations to build from.”

The £20 million, first announced in September last year, is also in addition to the £21.9 million Levelling Up money currently being used to create the new Mayflower education facility, the Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre refurbishment and improvement works to the railway station.