Council leader Joe Cullinane

Cabinet members approved over £14m of council investment in Recovery and Renewal projects that will support communities and business, invest in green initiatives, and provide investment in the area’s parks and coastal areas.

A series of bids totalling over £50m were also considered during the meeting on Tuesday.

The council is looking to take advantage of existing UK and Scottish Government schemes that are in place to help support local authorities including:

• The council’s Recovery and Renewal Plan - £14.7m
• Levelling up Fund – £45m
• Community Renewal Fund –£3m
• Regeneration Capital Grant Fund – £1.2m
• Vacant and Derelict Fund – £1.3m
• Place Based Investment Programme – £1.2m

The key themes of these projects are to help the economic recovery, support environmental initiatives to stimulate a green economic recovery, support vulnerable families, citizens and communities, provide sustainable investment in physical infrastructure and open spaces and invest in mental health and wellbeing initiatives.

Councillor Joe Cullinane, leader of North Ayrshire Council and cabinet member for Community Wealth Building, said: “This is a very significant package of proposals which constitutes an ambitious Recovery Plan for North Ayrshire.

“We were carrying out a lot of really exciting and innovative work prior to the pandemic and are determined to build on that. We are in a good position to recover and these plans our commitment to our communities.

“All the projects are aligned to our council priorities and our commitment to Community Wealth Building. We are determined to use every lever at our disposal to assist our communities in recovering from the pandemic. We look forward to providing more details of our plans over the coming weeks and months.”

The council said it expects to hear about its various funding applications in the coming weeks.