New park cafe among ‘incredibly positive’ funding plans for city

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A new cafe for Tredegar Park and improvements to the Fourteen Locks visitor attraction are among Newport City Council’s plans for a final round of UK Government funding.

The Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is in a “transition” year and will be replaced by a different model of structural funding for local projects in 2026.

Newport City Council will receive around £11 million this year for projects aimed at improving communities, businesses and opportunities.

A spending plan agreed by the council’s cabinet this week includes £1.2 million for a new cafe and changing facilities in Tredegar Park.

A further £1 million will be put towards work at the city’s Transporter Bridge, where renovation work and a new visitor centre are nearing completion.

There’ll be £500,000 for improvements at the visitor centre at Fourteen Locks, on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal – as well as for works on biodiversity, water supply and other facilities.

The city’s new leisure centre project will also receive £500,000, and there will be £450,000 provided for a pitch upgrade at the Newport International Sports Village.

Other projects to receive UKSPF money include warm hubs, allotments, job skills programmes and various event programmes.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Cllr James Clarke, the cabinet member for regeneration, said the £11 million funding allocation for Newport is “incredibly positive for the city”.

The money will bring “enormous benefits” for the city centre’s events programme, including recent additions such as the Lunar New Year celebration and the Winter Wonderland, he told colleagues.

The UK Government funding will also support wider council projects such as the placemaking plan, which is aimed at making better use of the city’s public spaces, and is expected to be unveiled in May.

Cllr Yvonne Forsey, the cabinet member for climate change, welcomed the funding for “extensive works” in Tredegar Park, adding she would “look forward to improving as many of our parks as possible”.

The UKSPF was set up under Boris Johnson’s government to replace European Union structural funds after Brexit, as part of the so-called “levelling-up agenda”.

Following the change of government last year, Westminster extended the scheme for another “transition” year and is currently preparing for “wider funding reform”.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government expects these changes will give a greater role to devolved powers such as the Welsh Government, and will focus on “boosting growth and living standards in historically underfunded places across the UK”.