St Austell, Camborne and Newquay will be able to bid for money from the government’s Future High Streets Fund after a government decision to allow more bids from Cornwall.

The original Fund submission criteria only allowed only one bid from each Local Authority area.

After lobbying from Cornwall Council Leader Adam Paynter to treat rural areas more fairly in the process, Cornwall will now be able to submit a total of four bids.

Earlier this week, the council confirmed Penzance would be the focus for its bid for a share of the fund – bids will now also be submitted for St Austell, Camborne and Newquay.

Councillor Paynter welcomed the decision by government to allow the council to submit more bids.

He said: “This is good news for Cornwall and could provide a much needed boost to local high streets. However, the criteria is still very challenging for a rural area like Cornwall and the timeframes for submission are tight. There are potentially for over 465 bids which could be submitted from towns across the country.”

Cornwall Council identified Penzance as the focus of the bid after it topped an expression of interest process which was sent out to town councils.

Penzance will be the main bid from Cornwall for the Future High Street Fund but there is now the opportunity to endorse bids from the towns that scored highly in the selection process if there is the resource to produce those bids locally to meet the deadline of March 22 2019.

Launched on the December 26 2018, the Future High Streets Fund is key part of the government’s plan for the high street, providing co-funding towards capital projects that transform and regenerate town centres through innovative proposals around transport, housing delivery and our public services.

The government’s criteria is focused on clear objectives for high streets that are facing significant challenges.

Councillor Paynter stressed that the High Street Fund “is not the only show in town,” and said Cornwall Council would continue to support and work with towns across Cornwall.

He said: “Town centres are the lifeblood of communities across Cornwall and the council has a track record of working with places to improve local economies.

“We are working with towns such as Hayle, Redruth, Liskeard and Torpoint on exciting plans for the future. We have a Councillor led Scrutiny Panel looking at the vitality of towns. It will make recommendations on how we can tackle the challenges town centres are facing by considering replacing retail with housing, work and leisure space,” he said.

“We’ve also invested in place-shaping work to strengthen local economies and communities in Bodmin and Launceston. This is an agenda we are committed to and we will make sure that lessons learned from the High Street Fund and the findings from the scrutiny panel are shared with other communities across Cornwall.”