Published: May 28, 2009
It's crunch time for Burnham-On-Sea's bid for regeneration funding

Regeneration bosses in Burnham-On-Sea are keeping their fingers crossed for good news, with an announcement due next month on whether the town has been successful in gaining millions of pounds of funding.

The South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) is due to announce on June 8th which regeneration schemes across the region - including Burnham's Civic Pride project to redevelop the town centre - will gain funding.

However, Regional Development Agency Chief Executive Jane Henderson has already said that that the budget setting is "taking place against the backdrop of considerably reduced funding available to the Agency" - making it possible that Burnham's regeneration bosses could be disapppointed.

Nicola Slawski, Group Manager Regeneration at Sedgemoor District Council, told Burnham-On-Sea.com this week: "We have our fingers crossed for good news, but we have to be realistic too. SWRDA's overall pot of funding has been reduced, so we might not get as much as we would like."

The government's 2007 spending review reduced all RDAs' budgets by 5% year-on-year for 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11.

Also, in recent months, some of the funding for RDAs has been re-directed by the Government to pay for national business support and housing initiatives.

The image above shows how Burnham town centre is expected to look after regeneration