Council gives green light for City Deal

East Renfrewshire Council confirmed that it is to participate in the £1.13 billion Glasgow & Clyde Valley City Deal initiative.

Article Source: East Renfrewshire Council
Last Updated: 15 August 2014 16:24

The City Deal means that the council will be able to carry out £44m of major projects, supported by a capital grant of £38m (86%) of the council’s total investment. ERC has committed to finding the additional £6million to support this substantial project.

The deal is designed to make Glasgow and the Clyde Valley one of the fastest growing city regions in the UK.

The councils in the Glasgow City Region, Glasgow City, East Renfrewshire, East Dunbarton, West Dunbarton, Inverclyde and South Lanarkshire put together a £1.13 billion infrastructure fund proposal.

This would be used to fund major infrastructure projects, drive innovation and growth through the support of key sectors and to address challenges in the local labour market.

These projects will allow a programme of work to go ahead which will greatly add to the value of the local economy over the next 20 years.

In July 2014 the UK government confirmed its support of a Glasgow & Clyde Valley City Deal and an investment of £500 million. The Scottish Government have matched this investment of £500 million, leaving Glasgow and the surrounding local authorities, of which ERC is one, to raise a further £130 million to ensure the delivery of all the projects proposed.

This means that the local authorities participating will only need to fund £130 million of a £1.13bn proposal over the 20-year period.

East Renfrewshire will benefit from a wide range of projects which will are of enormous economic development significance for the council area.

The major East Ren projects will be the:

M77 Junction 5 spur to Barrhead
• New link road from Junction 5 to Barrhead (three phases)
• Neilston railway line over-bridge upgrades
• Access road to a new retirement village
• Purchase of land for Balgray link.

New rail station – Barrhead South
• Unstaffed and required parking/bus stop/footpaths linking station.

Dams Road re-alignment plus access to visitors’ centre and straightening of Aurs Road in Barrhead.

Sewerage/water/power/telecomms provision for all developments in Country Park
• Provision of utilities infrastructure to the country park.

Dams to Darnley Visitor Centre – café, restaurant, toilets, visitor information and car parking

A business and innovation centre for the Eastwood area.

Council leader Councillor Jim Fletcher, who is to be the council’s representative on the proposed partnership board, said: “We are delighted to be part of this exciting initiative. Our residents will benefit from the overall programme of infrastructure investment across the City Region.

“They will see an improved infrastructure and connectivity to support local growth and increased employment opportunities arising from the development of these projects.

“There will also be increased longer term job prospects across the wider region. So there are exciting times ahead for East Renfrewshire with major projects in the pipeline.”

A tri-partite agreement between the UK and Scottish Governments and the Clyde Valley partners will be signed at Glasgow City Chambers in mid August.

Additional information for editors
The UK Government launched its City Deals programme in 2012 and to date there are 25 City Deals in England.

City Deals are agreements between government and a city to give cities new powers and freedoms and control to:
• Take charge and responsibility of decisions that affect their area
• Do what they think is best to help businesses grow
• Create economic growth
• And decide how public money should be spent.

The aim of the City Deal initiative is to give city regions a financial incentive to deliver economic growth in their area by allowing them to ‘earn back’ from the Treasury additional tax income generated from investment in infrastructure.