RAILWAY station car park improvements and improved leisure facilities are part of £12 million allocated from the New Homes Bonus.

New Homes Bonus was introduced in 2011 and is a grant paid by central government to councils to reflect and incentivise housing growth in their areas. The vast majority of councils keep the money and use it to run their everyday services.

Over the next few years Wychavon anticipates receiving a further £16 million of New Homes Bonus payments from the government.

Around £12 million was given to council led projects at a meeting on Wednesday night that will benefit communities and the local economy.

These include investment in a new housing company, the strategic land investment fund, railway station car parking improvements and improved leisure facilities.

The money will go towards ending the saga over Pershore Railway Station car park, as well as improving the new Broadway station car park and parking at Honeybourne Station.

Without a significant allocation to district projects, many of these initiatives simply will not happen.

Up to £3 million was given on a brand new Community Legacy Grant scheme that parish and town councils can bid for. The scheme will be used to support projects that meet evidenced local needs, have local support and will make a difference to communities.

Around £1 million will be given for grants and existing commitments. These include the annual grants to the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and the district’s three volunteer centres along with the annual community grants scheme, provide support for events, the Droitwich West project and the Rural Communities Programme.

Wychavon however, decided to allocate £3.5 million of funding for communities where development took place and gave parishes the opportunity to come up with ideas of what do with it.

Parishes have so far shared in over £1.4million of this and have funded village hall improvements, speeding signs, play areas, defibrillators, outdoor table tennis to name just a few.

In addition Wychavon retained around £9.5 million in New Homes Bonus and spent it on a variety of bigger projects such as affordable housing, regeneration schemes, grants, improvement to leisure facilities, Worcester Six Business Park and flood prevention schemes.

Cllr. Linda Robinson, leader of Wychavon said “This is great news for communities across the district. We’re in a fortunate position as unlike other councils we do not need to use this money to pay for day to day services.

"It is all available for investment in the district and we should, therefore, be ambitious as this is a one off opportunity to make a real and lasting difference to the lives of those who live in, work in and visit our district.”