Emotional Maryport mayor Peter Kendall has spoken of his delight after the town’s successful £1.3million heritage cash bid.

Coun Kendall was overwhelmed by the news that Maryport’s bid for Heritage Action Zone cash was triumphant, and said this was the product of nearly three years of hard work.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of news the town was also successful in its bid to get a share of the Government’s £1bn High Street fund, for which 100 towns in the country qualified.

Coun Kendall also thanked his fellow councillors and Graeme Wilson, head of Allerdale’s Maryport regeneration programme, for all the work that has gone into the bids.

He said: “It’s absolutely amazing. It has been a long time coming. We are delighted that the work we, and the other existing town councillors have put in has created this.

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“I would also like to thank Graeme Wilson and his officers.”

Mr Kendall said: “I’ve been delighted to have worked with the good officers of Allerdale on this from the early stages to now.”

Adrian Kirkbride, councillor for Maryport North ward, gave his support to the regeneration of the town’s heritage spots: “That alone brings people into the town, it is history for the town. It gives people a sense of pride to live here.”

Coun Kirkbride welcomed the funding, adding that it could be a vital boost for the town’s economy: “If you clean the place up and get new attractions it could attract new businesses here in Maryport. We are in talks about how we can do this.”

Coun Mark Jenkinson, deputy leader of Allerdale council and executive member with responsibility for economic growth, said Maryport’s regeneration team had worked hard to put the bids together to ensure the town would get to the next stage of the process.

Final projects will need to be drawn up before a final decision is made and the cash is released.

Coun Kirkbride said: “It’s superb but I’m hoping we can get the money sorted to put into the town.”

The Heritage Action Zone funding is provided through Historic England and is part of a £95m pot.

Coun Jenkinson said: “The team have been working really hard to make sure our bid fits the bill.

“The way this fund works, we’ll have a part of funding to go to public realm works, for example regenerating a historic building.

“There are towns that are heritage-rich but have suffered from neglect so there is that element about historic buildings and making use of them.

“There is also a cultural element to it and some of this funding would be used for a cultural programme of events celebrating what is unique about Maryport.

“Some of the funding comes through the Arts Council, so that’s why there is also that element to it.”

He added that an analysis had already been done to identify worthy projects, however until the bidding process was ready to move onto the next stage it was difficult to say exactly what would be funded.

“We need to make sure that what we put forward is sustainable.

“We have a number of stakeholder groups involved, Maryport councillors and businesses who will all come together as a collective to take things forward,” he said.

Coun Jenkinson, who is chairman of Allerdale Conservatives, added that seeing Maryport qualifying for these two grants in a short space of time showed the Government’s commitment to the area.

He said: “I followed Boris Johnson in his leadership bid and he stated time after time that he wanted to level the funding across the country.

“He recognised, as we have been saying for a long time, that sometimes the sharing of the funding hasn’t been fair.

“He made that promise and this is him and his ministers making good on that promise.”

The bids are all part of the regeneration efforts for Maryport coordinated by Allerdale council, which, with help from the local community, is developing a programme of improvements for the promenade, harbour, Downstreet area and town centre, as well as planning a series of events.