Sixteen towns, cities and rural areas across England will share £20million of National Lottery money to ensure their residents are getting the best from local arts and heritage.

The pilot Great Place Scheme - one of the flagship measures from the Government’s Culture White Paper – has two central aims:

[quote=Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of HLF]"The aim is to bring together National Lottery investment and local ambition, to make a difference to people across entire communities."[/quote]

• to ensure the considerable investment in culture made by organisations like HLF and Arts Council England has maximum positive impact on jobs, economic performance, educational attainment, community cohesion and health and wellbeing
• to enable ambitious civic organisations and local businesses and communities to invest in and put culture at the heart of their thinking

The 16 places to bid successfully for funding include:

• Barnsley and Rotherham - £1,264,000
• Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft - £737,900
• Gloucester- £1,489,200
• Walthamstow - £1,355,600

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of HLF, said: “The Great Place Scheme is something new and really quite radical.  The aim is to bring together National Lottery investment and local ambition, to make a difference to people across entire communities.  It’s a bold plan and I am looking forward to seeing some innovative and exciting results from these 16 pilot projects.”

Twelve other organisations to receive funding are: Coventry City of Culture Trust (West Midlands); Craven District Council (Yorkshire and the Humber); Derbyshire County Council (East Midlands); Greater Manchester Combined Authority (North West); Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (London); Reading Borough Council (South East); Rural Media Charity (West Midlands); Sunderland Culture (North East); Tees Valley Combined Authority (North East); The Creative Foundation (South East); Torbay Economic Development Company Ltd (South West); Visit County Durham (North East).