Community asked to decide how to spend £20m grant

Seacombe residents in Wirral will submit ideas about how to spend £20m over the next decade

A community on the banks of the River Mersey will be asked how it wants to spend £2m every year for the next decade.

Under the government's new Plan for Neighbourhoods scheme, Seacombe in Wirral will be one of 330 areas across the UK to pioneer a new way of deciding how to spend public money on local projects.

The cash was secured by Wallasey MP Dame Angela Eagle, who said: "I have long campaigned for regeneration funds in Seacombe. The area has missed out on schemes in the past, and I am really pleased that this is no longer the case."

Residents can decide how the entirety of the money is spent: from local park and public space improvements to investing in youth clubs and safer streets.

'Empowering local people'

To use the fund, residents in Seacombe will come together to submit ideas for how to spend the £20m.

A call will soon go out for people to volunteer to sit on a local board to help co-ordinate the project.

Dame Angela said the "massive investment" would "transform" the area.

She added: "The people who live in Seacombe know their area better than anyone else and that is why the government is empowering them to make the changes they care about most.

"Crucially, all decisions will come directly from people who live and work in Seacombe, not from Parliament or Wirral Council."