Preston City Council receives £366,000 grant to help those impacted by coronavirus

Preston City Council town hall. Pic: Tony Worrall

Preston is to receive £366,176.76 as a general support package to help the city through the coronavirus pandemic.

The money is aimed to help those in the city struggling to buy food and essentials as a result of Covid-19.

Essential resources will also be provided to the council through this money.

The grant will be split into three sections:

£72,850 for Test and Trace contributing to the day-to-day health protection in the local authority.
£90,430.09 Track and Trace to support a responsive approach to the current coronavirus outbreak.
£202,896.67 Part of the Local authority Emergency Assistance Grant for Food and Essential Supplies Allocation. This is to support people who are struggling to afford food and other essentials due to COVID-19.

Councillor Matthew Brown, Leader of Preston City Council said: “Since the additional local restrictions were brought into Preston in early August, we have been asking Government for additional support – support that would better enable us to protect those who need it the most and to effectively support the fight to stop the spread of the virus through more localised testing, track and trace systems.

“However we do have concerns that this will not be enough to meet the significant demand that is being caused by the pandemic.

“We will continue to work with partners for the best outcome possible for Preston.”

The grant has conditions that need to be met which include: the money has to be used in a set timeframe (31 March 2022) with the third section being used by 2021 and monitoring information has to be sent to Lancashire County Council when requested.

This funding is not related to the £42m tier-three restrictions financial deal struck on October 17. No information has been given by the county council or district council on how this funding, which is to support businesses and communities through the tighter restrictions, is to be spent.

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