New money to smarten up the high street

MORE than £50,000 has been given to Nottingham City Council to tackle empty shops.

The Government grant has also been given to Mansfield and Ashfield district councils.

The funding will help pay for "creative" ways to revive empty shops and re-open them for community use.

Each council can use the grant as they see fit on ideas to boost town centres.

Communities secretary John Denham said: "We know that the downturn has really hurt high streets in areas of high deprivation across the East Midlands. These grants will help to transform and re-open empty shops as part of our real help to keep town centres vibrant and combat the recession.

"Those councils will now be able to use our funding to come up with their own creative ideas to transform their boarded-up shops into something useful, like a learning centre, meeting place for local people or showroom for local artists.

"There is no need to see unused shops on our high streets going to waste."