SRB Programmes in Shepway

     

During the mid- to late-1990s, Shepway District Council, in partnership with a range of key stakeholders, was successful in bidding for Single Regeneration Budget funding. The aim of these bids was to help improve the quality of life for residents in some of the most deprived wards in the south-east through improved access to good housing, improvements to the local environment, the provision of recreational facilities and the support for vulnerable groups and those in need.

Although Shepway has areas of prosperity, the Government’s Index of Local Deprivation 2000 demonstrated that the following wards were in the 20% most deprived in England:

• Folkestone Central (now called Harvey Central)
• Folkestone East
• Folkestone Foord
• Folkestone Harbour
• St Mary in the Marsh
• Lydd

These wards formed the basis of the two SRB Programmes in Shepway, with Believing in Folkestone (BIF) covering a target area made up of the four Folkestone wards, and Community Action in South Kent (CASK) covering rural South Kent.

For both of these programmes, a partnership between Shepway District Council and the public, private and voluntary sectors, developed to implement a comprehensive approach to regenerating the district. As a result, over 75 projects benefitted from SRB funding through these two programmes between 1998 and March 2006, ranging from large capital investment to smaller community initiatives.

An Independent End of Scheme Evaluation of both programmes, carried out in the Summer of 2006 concluded that:

"Overall, on most if not all evaluation criteria, the BIF and CASK programmes have been a success. They have done much to kick-start the regeneration process in disadvantaged urban and rural areas and strengthened the community dimension that is so important if this process is to fully benefit local people and be socially inclusive"