East Kilbride will share in almost £1million of additional Scottish Government funding being invested in South Lanarkshire’s town centres.
Three new projects in East Kilbride and Hamilton will be supported by the Town Centre Capital Grants Fund.
Phase two funding of £902,000 will supplement the initial £2.506 million grant in 2019.
Two of the three new projects will see £201,000 allocated for a master plan for East Kilbride Civic Centre and £175,000 for EK Zone – a project to create a new community and business hub in East Kilbride.
Projects in Lanark, Hamilton and Cambuslang that were already underway have received additional funding due to the tight timescale for spending the grants.
Head of planning and economic development Pauline Elliot told the council’s community and enterprise committee last Tuesday that the time frame had been extended by a year due to the UK-wide coronavirus lockdown in March.
She said: “All funds are to be committed by March 2021 and spent by September 2021.
“Six South Lanarkshire towns will have received funding.”
She added that some projects have been delayed due to COVID-19 and that some phase two funding had been used to ensure they are completed.
The largest chunk of phase two funding –£250,000 – will be used for the third new project to turn the New Cross Centre in Hamilton into a community and business hub.
Extra funding has been approved for project to turn the Royal Oak Hotel in Lanark into social housing, taking the total grant to £345,000.
An additional £100,000 has been granted to the project to create social housing at the former Vogue Cinema in Hamilton, taking the total funding for the development to £440,000.
Cambuslang’s streetscapes project will get an extra £225,000 taking the total grant to £845,000.
A further £50,000 has been allocated to the South Lanarkshire Heritage App project which now has total funding of £200,000.
In Lanark, an additional £77,000 has be granted to the project to remove derelict buildings and create a town centre car park and market space at Hunters Close taking the total funding to £257,000.
No extra funding has been added to the £300,000 grant for social housing at the former Press Buildings in Hamilton, the £60,000 grant for the community cafe and cinema project in Forth or the £335,000 grant to acquire a derelict site in Carnwath for a community project.
