£138,000 booster for community projects in Milton Keynes is agreed

Milton Keynes Council has teamed up with 19 parish councils across the borough to identify projects including bottle refilling stations in Olney and pond clearing in Shenley Church End.

Other schemes include new park benches, CCTV cameras and flower beds.

MK Council’s cabinet member for the public realm, Cllr Emily Darlington (Lab, Bletchley East), took the decision to release the borough’s part of the money at a Delegated Decisions meeting on Tuesday. It will be topped up by contributions from 19 parish councils.

She said she thought spending £61,950 of MK Council’s money on the projects would be “building on communities and infrastructure”. She added: “It’s quite nice to see the range of projects.”

The money comes from a £100,000 cash pot put aside for such projects, and any left over at the end of the financial year will be kept in the budget Community Infrastructure Fund for next year.

Asked what projects she thought were particularly interesting, Cllr Darlington joked: “The ones in my ward!”

Queensway is getting a new war memorial bench, while the town’s library (not in her ward) is also getting a bench and a flower bed. Together, they cost £10,000.

The most expensive project is to resurface the car park at Woolstone Sport Ground, at a total cost of £12,956 with £10,956 of that coming from Campbell Park & Old Woughton Parish Council.

All the projects should be completed by March 2020.