The new term for council members seems have to started strongly.
The ‘war’ on potholes gained traction with the injection of a £2 million boost on top of the £6.5m already handed down from Government. It is obviously much needed and long overdue but its nice to finally see serious work being put into repairing our roads.
We have also seen Lincolnshire County Council and South Kesteven District Council decide to splash some cash on improving the appearance of the town centre. They are spending £320,000 on shop fronts throughout Grantham and the rest of the district.
The aim is something that has been important to the area for a while now. Clearly its objective is to improve the looks of Grantham in an effort to attract customers.
While some have complained about public money being spent on private businesses it is important to note that this scheme is an incentive with the council paying between 50-75 per cent of the bill. While landlords are getting a nice deal we need to note that some were previously happy to let their shop front decay, affecting the looks of our town, and are now going to make use of this cash available to them.
This kind of scheme is important to Grantham. Some shop fronts on the high street and surrounding areas were in dire need of improvement and were detracting from other local businesses.
With the self improvement of the bigger businesses such as Morrison’s recent skills academy addition and incentivised initiatives like this, Grantham appears to be heading back in the right direction with its businesses.
** Do you agree with Jacob? Will improving Grantham’s appearance attract customers? E-mail: comment@granthamjournal.co.uk