Discretionary coronavirus grant scheme for Blackpool businesses reopens

The £3.2m Blackpool Business Recovery Fund will remain open until midnight on Wednesday, March 31, offering targeted grant support for many businesses that have been ineligible for existing grants.

This latest round of the discretionary scheme is inviting applications from a range of new business sectors, affected by the stay at home restrictions and travel bans, such as: Daytime takeaways; local convenience stores; travel trade operators; kennels and catteries; driving instructors; coach operators and a wide range of creative industries.

The scheme will also provide additional support to taxi drivers.

Larger leisure and accommodation businesses with multiple venues can reapply, and smaller tourism supply chain businesses can apply for the first time.

Coun Lynn Williams, Leader of Blackpool Council, said: “Following the first lockdown, we paid out £47m in grants to over 4,000 local businesses.

“More recently, the government provided a series of smaller grants linked to both tiered and lockdown restrictions, albeit with a focus on non-essential retail, leisure and hospitality businesses.

“The council acted quickly to ensure these grants were paid out as efficiently as possible to eligible businesses.

“We know there are many businesses that have fallen outside existing schemes.

“Devising the criteria for the second round of the discretionary scheme has been very challenging given the limited resources available, but we listened to local businesses, business associations and MPs and refined our grants policy to allow as many new businesses as possible to apply.

“We are doing everything in our power to help wherever we can.

“Applications for the new round of this fund are now live and will close at midnight on March 31. Any business owner who thinks they may be eligible for support should apply as soon as possible.”

Detailed information on eligibility criteria and the application process is available at www.blackpoolunlimited.com/BBRFR2

Blackpool Gazette: Thanks for reading. If you value what we do and are able to support us, a digital subscription is just £1 for your first month. Try us today by clicking here