COUNCIL chiefs at Warrington have agreed to bid for £24 million funding to deliver a project to help the town become a “city of the future.”
Members of the council’s executive board have given the go-ahead for the bid, which will see Warrington one of 30 towns competing for the money.
The Future Cities Demonstrator is a two stage competition launched by innovation agency the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) during the summer when Warrington was one of 30 towns and cities selected to progress to the second stage.
The winning authority will be notified in January.
Warrington’s bid involves a series of interwoven measures to address the town’s identified challenges, including the ageing population, transport, housing, and environmental issues and economic prosperity.
The measures proposed have been designed to stand alone as independent, fundable projects in the event of the bid being unsuccessful.
The aim is to develop an electronic information hub that will collect data from numerous sources, both existing and in the future.
Individuals and businesses will be able to access this data seamlessly via smartphones and similar handheld technology, via interactive TV services and via specialised technology targeted at older people.
This will help them to access council services and to obtain real-time information as required. It will also act to reduce dependence on council services in the future.
Underpinning the hub will be the rollout of universal superfast broadband and/or wireless connectivity across the town centre and areas currently without connection.
The hub would also be supported by a Warrington smartcard acting as a cashless payment system for various services and a Warrington loyalty card.
The bid requires no match funding from the council – and if successful will be 100 per cent funded by the TSB.
The report added: “This project prepares Warrington for a future where citizens are fully engaged and able to participate in decisions that will benefit their lives and the operation of the town.”
COUNCIL chiefs at Warrington have agreed to bid for £24 million
funding to deliver a project to help the town become a "city of the
future."
Town to bid for £24m future city money
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
10 Comments
if they get this money, will it be used to buy votes by initially spending in areas and among demographics ,e.g. housing association tenants, where Labour are looking to increase/secure votes?
This council obsession with the future is a complete and utter joke. WHEN are they going to deal with the present. City of the future??? Grid locked town, empty shops, ignored communities. Wake up to how things are in the real world.
Well sed Silver Surfer. This town is going down the pan. The people that are going to suffer as the council tenants on benefits, bedroom tax watta joke, and the peps who are screwing the benefits system time and time again will they be the ones to suffer? Noo is the answer they will just keep doing what they have always done and the peps entitled to benefits will stop getting them.
As a resident of Warrington it is no wonder Lewis Carroll wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 1865. In the intervening 147 years successive generations of Warrintonians have been peering Through the Looking Glass wishing for an end to Mad Hatter politics hoping against hope those we elect will at some time wake up and at get to grips with reality; namely the actual problems we face daily now, not some supposed Dan Dare vision of the future.
What’s a pep?
Is Terry O’Neill Dan Dare – or the mekon? 🙂
I thought that the UK had no money, clearly it can rustle up £24 million from somewhere.
it can rustle up £120 million to stage an election for police chiefs that 86% of the country couldn’t be bothered with….
And as I understand it, quite a few of those elected were in the Police, so I guess they can all be mates together, bit like the poacher and gamekeeper being one and the same, and getting well paid. All seems a very odd process to me. Guess you will have to see how it works in practice.
Hi Nick the money will be used as described above. The bid funding has come from money won in the first stage of the competition as reported by Warrington Worldwide earlier this year. Warrington’s bid is innovative but up against very stiff competition. If the Town wins it will be a huge achievement.