Group selected to spend £20m in community

Residents in one of the most deprived areas of a county say they are excited to decide how to spend £20m of funding over the next decade.

A board of 20 local people from Matson and Robinswood in Gloucester have been selected to determine how money from the government's Pride in Place scheme should be invested.

Latest figures show Matson and Robinswood is the most deprived council ward in Gloucestershire, with the lowest income and employment rates.

Co-vice board chair Naomi Draper said she was "very proud" to part of the project which would benefit the "supportive" and "tight-knit" community she loves.

More than 40 people applied for a place on the board.

The chosen 20 come from a range of backgrounds, and are between 20 and 70 years old.

The group has to submit a spending plan for the money next year, before the first £2m payment is received in April.

Members will be canvassing local residents between now and Christmas to come up with a list of projects to invest in.

Draper, who has lived in the area for more than 25 years and is CEO of the GL4 community interest company, said a lot of ideas had already been suggested.

"Young people were something that came out quite a lot - how can we give the young people a better start, better opportunities?" she added.

"But then [the board] all add different perspectives; you have some people being like, 'I want to do stuff to do with history and I want to do stuff to do with the environment and I want to do stuff with the buildings and I think we should do this' - so there was loads of ideas, loads of buzz."

The government has said local communities can decide how the money is spent, but two thirds has to be invested in creating long-term benefits such as buying or refurbishing buildings.

Draper said the first task of the group was "getting people to understand the money" in the local area.

"When people talk about it they're like, 'oh £20m', but it's £2m a year and then that is broken down into to infrastructure and revenue, so it's getting them to understand what's possible within those categories," she explained.

Jason Dunford, chief executive of Gloucestershire Gateway Trust – the charity behind Gloucester Services - is the chair of the local Pride in Place board.

He said it was vital the community felt a sense of ownership over the money.

"The real key factor in Pride in Place is not that it's big government or departments or civil servants deciding where that money should go - it's the residents and people that live in Matson and Robinswood," he added.

"In the future in years to come they'll be saying, 'yeah actually that building, that project, the impact of that investment, was down to us,' so that's what I'm looking forward to most."

Follow BBC Gloucestershire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.