It’s Round Two for Stratford-on-Avon District Council

Out of 12 winners announced on Saturday the Stratford-on-Avon District Council and Coventry University's bid for support for an E-Town Toolkit pilot in Bidford-on-Avon and Studley was unfortunately not one of the lucky few who will enjoy a £100,000 cash boost from Government.

Undeterred by this, the bid will be re-submitting to the second round of Portas Pilots to support an innovative E-Town toolkit.  

More than 370 towns put in a bid to be a 'Portas Pilot' to receive the cash injection and receive support from Mary Portas and Grant Shapps with three of the successful bids being shadowed by Channel 4.  

Cllr Maurice Howse, Enterprise, Housing and Revenues Portfolio says: “There was a huge amount of competition, and we could not miss this timely and important opportunity to put forward a bid to become a Portas Pilot.  Naturally we are disappointed that our joint proposal has not been picked as a Portas Pilot.  A lot of people put in a great deal of work in a very short space of time to prepare for the bid, including the 'Town Teams' in Bidford and Studley.  However, we now have the opportunity to succeed in the second round of Portas funding and we owe it to them and the other towns and villages across the District who are likely to benefit if our second bid for an E-Town Toolkit is successful."

The winning towns to receive advice from Mary Portas and a share of her £1.2 million fund are Bedford, Croydon, Dartford, Bedminster in Bristol, Liskeard in Cornwall, Margate, Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, Nelson in Lancashire, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in Northumberland, Stockport in Greater Manchester, Stockton-on-Tees in North Yorkshire and Wolverhampton.

A second round of the competition has been launched with a further announcement in July.