Wick with Toddington has been chosen to receive a direct £20m local investment from the government as part of its new national ‘Pride in Place’ Strategy and Funding.
Wick with Toddington has been chosen because of its status as ‘doubly disadvantaged’ through a combination of high social deprivation and weak social infrastructure, and will now have significant freedom to shape how this money is spent as a community.
“This is quite simply a once in a generation opportunity” explained Cllr Freddie Tandy, who represents the area on both Arun District and Littlehampton Town Councils. “Places like Wick don’t normally get this level of investment, and certainly not with the freedom for the community to have the final say in how that life-changing amount of money is spent and directed”
Cllr Mike Northeast, who has represented Wick on Arun District and Littlehampton Town Councils for several decades reflected: “15 years ago, the last Labour Government started to address the inequalities children in Wick were experiencing because of underinvestment in the basics
They kickstarted the redress by funding a new Sure Start family centre in Wick. Unfortunately, when the Tories came to power Sure Start was scrapped, and its funding was scrapped.
Against all the odds we continued to fight for Wick, securing funding to build the new K2 youth and community centre in Eldon Way. We formed the Wick Action Group which has set up a successful school uniform exchange and WickFlicks showing top films in school holidays.
This Pride of Place £20M is a major investment in Wick from this new Labour Government and recognises the lift that is needed to help raise the living standards of the whole community, with their input and involvement.”
How the funding – which is delivered in £2m instalments over 10 years – is spent will be entirely for the community to decide through a new Neighbourhood Board, who must undertake a significant community engagement exercise to understand Wick’s priorities.
Explaining the importance of this, Cllr Alan Butcher said “From the initial information provided by the government, the community’s vision and 10-year investment plan will need to be submitted to central government for approval before the end of next year, so we are facing a massive task to bring everyone together and create our shared vision, but I have no doubt our fantastic community will more than step up to the task!”
Clare Walsh, who was Labour’s candidate at the 2024 general election in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton welcomed the announcement, saying “The one thing I heard consistently from people in Littlehampton was their aspiration to make their own change in their community, so I am absolutely delighted that even though we fell slightly short of winning in this constituency, that the Labour government has still heard people’s concerns, heard this community’s ambitions, and acted as we promised we would.”