Pride in Place £20m fund a 'game-changer' - leader

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves launched the programme in Woodside on Thursday

Three neighbourhoods in the south of Telford will be given £20m over the next decade to revive things like high streets, parks and green spaces.

The funding for Woodside, Sutton Hill and Brookside is from the government's new Pride in Place Programme, which targets 339 of the country's most deprived communities.

Funding will allow local people to decide where and how money is spent in their area.

Telford & Wrekin Council is boosting the sum to £30m with an extra £10m over the 10-year plan - which the authority's leader Shaun Davies described as a "shot in the arm".

"It's a game-changer for south Telford, but it's also a game-changer for Telford as a whole," the Labour member told the BBC.

"Some of our communities have not seen any additional funding from the government over the last 14 years of the previous government, so this is going to be a shot in the arm so we can bring back pride in the communities."

Leader of Telford and Wrekin Council Shaun Davies said the money would transform Telford

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Communities and Local Government Secretary Steve Reed launched the programme at Park Lane Community Centre in Woodside on Thursday.

Davies said the authority had been "engaging" with the community over how the money should be spent over the summer.

"There isn't a lack of ideas," he added, "so we're going to spend some more time engaging.

"This is not about how I want to spend the money, this is not how the prime minister or the government want to spend the money, this is how we're going to spend local money in local communities on behalf of local people - and they're going to direct how that's going to be spent."