Council set to give £1.3m to regeneration project

The scheme would create a number of new facilities in Ollerton, including a cinema

A council is set to spend more than £1.3m to plug a financial gap in a project to regenerate Ollerton town centre.

In 2023, the Conservative government awarded £20m from its Levelling Up Fund to schemes in Ollerton and Clipstone in Nottinghamshire.

A report prepared for Newark and Sherwood District Council's cabinet - which is set to meet on Tuesday - has now recommended allocating £1.33m to the Ollerton Regeneration scheme.

Council documents state that without a solution to the financial shortfall - based on estimated construction costs - the business case would not be able to be signed off, which would "very likely cause significant delays" to the programme.

The scheme, which has not yet started, is set to bring a new cinema, cafe, public sector hub and housing to the town.

Council documents stated the project team had explored opportunities to amend the scope of the scheme to reduce costs.

According to the documents, changes included reducing part of the main building containing the public sector hub space from two storeys in height to ground floor only.

Changes also included separating the cinema and cafe building block from the public sector hub building.

The proposed hub would offer people advice and support as well as adult education services.

"Restricting the scheme further would impact on the project's core objective to deliver transformational change for the town centre and create improved access to services for the community," the report prepared for the cabinet said.

The documents added it was expected that a planning application for the scheme would be submitted in October, following approval of the business case.