Ashfield District Council Leader, Cllr Jason Zadrozny will be leading a workshop on creating tomorrow’s communities, towns and cities at this year’s District Council’s Network (DCN) Conference. As Vice Chair of the DCN, Cllr Zadrozny will lead council chiefs and officers in discussions on the future of town centres and communities, following the announcement last year of the governments Future High Street and Towns funding.

Cllr Zadrozny will be joined by John Parmiter, Director, Future High Streets and Rachel Fisher, Deputy Director for Regeneration and Infrastructure, MHCLG to deliver the workshop at the conference on 6th & 7th February.

Kirby and Sutton are set to receive up to £25million each as part of the Towns Fund. Initial funding of £324k (£162k per town) has been granted to put structures and a vision in place in order to move to the next stage of agreeing a deal. As part of this, the Council will be working with the Discover Ashfield board, as well as local businesses and community groups.

The objective of the Towns Fund is to drive the economic regeneration of towns to deliver long term economic and productivity growth through Skills and Enterprise Infrastructure, Urban Regeneration and Connectivity. The District Council Conference will also see speeches from Sajid Javid MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Rt Hon Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Leader of Ashfield District Council, Councillor Jason Zadrozny said “As Vice Chair of the DCN I am pleased to be able to lead this workshop on the future of town centres and communities.

To have the opportunity to share ideas with other Councils will really benefit to our application to the Towns Fund. To have this huge amount in uncompetitive funding coming to two Ashfield towns is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the area.” Ashfield District Council has also been awarded £95k in the next step of the Future High Streets Fund.

The fund announced earlier this year could see Sutton receive further funding of up to £25million if its bid is successful.