Lodge Lane wins Mary Portas backing

LODGE Lane is to receive £100,000 in government funding to help aspiring young entrepreneurs and improve a public square.

The Liverpool 8 thoroughfare which links Princes Park with Edge Hill, is one of 15 new areas that have been selected to take part in Portas Pilots, taking the total across the country to 27. 

The pilots are being set up following an independent review carried out by retail expert Mary Portas into the future of Britain’s high streets.

The funding for Lodge Lane, which has revived its fortunes in the last decade to become a bustling hub of ethnicity in the city, will be used by the Tiber Young People’s Steering Group to improve the public square and promote business start-ups – particularly through a new mentoring scheme. The group will also offer training to young people on becoming entrepreneurs.

Lodge Lane

Residents spokeswoman Louise O'Brien said she was delighted by the news. "It's the result of some very hard work which has not always been on the municipal radar."

The news came as Local Government Minister Grant Shapps announced that having received an "overwhelming volume of high quality bids" for the Portas scheme, those not selected to be Pilots would not be left behind. 

Mary PortasNearly 400 Town Teams are to win backing from a multi-million pound package of Government support to revive their high streets and make them the "beating hearts of their communities". 

Shapps issued a call to MPs from the 392 Town Teams not chosen, to come forward and sign a national pledge to become a Town Team Partner – enabling access to a package of support to their own town.

The package of support is worth £5.5million nationwide, the Government claims.