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£450,000 EUROPEAN CASH FOR FOLKESTONE SIGNPOSTS

Three-quarters of the £600,000 of European cash  which will be heading into joint Shepway and Boulogne projects following two successful bids for funding will be spent on an art project centred on photographs used to create signposts in Folkestone.

The innovative new project, Signs of the Times, which brings together Shepway Council, Strange Cargo, Bride Hall Developments and the culture department of Boulogne town hall  will be funded to the tune of  £450,000. 

Shepway’s side of the project centres on a collection of Folkestone street photographs submitted by local people that will be used to create new street signs and a heritage signpost trail through the town. The project will be launched in 2007 with a spectacular lantern procession to coincide with the opening of the new Bride Hall shopping centre. A similar project will be run in Boulogne.

Bridget Orasinski from Strange Cargo said: “We are very excited to be working with French partners for the first time.”

The second project to get a Euro cash boost will allow the BOSCO partnership, which is made up of Shepway Council and Boulogne Town Hall, to be extended. The new partnership - which has secured £156,000 - will include Canterbury City Council and Communate d’agglomeration de Boulogne – which embraces wide part of the French town. 

Political and civic leaders were due to meet in Canterbury on Monday (30 October) to look at ways the two local authorities can plan joint projects.

Leader of Shepway Council, Robert Bliss, said: “Securing funding to extend the partnership means we will be able to develop new projects that will bring new benefits to a greater number of people. We will be building on our successes of the last few years, where BOSCO has successfully secured more than £2 million of funding from the European Interreg programme for a variety of cross-border projects worth more than £5 million.”