A push is to be made for millions of pounds of government funding to help regenerate Grantham Town Centre.

South Kesteven District Council was to push for £12.3 million from to government's Future High Street Fund to help pay for £27.4 million worth of projects.

Schemes would include 'public realm' works to improve the appearance of the town centre, changing the use of vacant spaces and what is described as a 'strategic development site.'

This latter proposal has a £12.4m budget, with the Future High Street Fund contributing £3,159,283 towards it.

However, significant details concerning the projects are not given in the report, which comes before senior councillors tomorrow,

The report, prepared for tomorrow's (Tuesday's) cabinet meeting of SKDC, says the council would contribute £379,092, which would also cover the appointment of a town centre manager.

The remainder would be funded privately.

However, the report says that competition for funding bids exceeding £10million would be extremely competitive with SKDC needing to demonstrate "an exceptional level of support" for such projects.

Therefore, the report recommends the council reviews some projects to bring its bid for government cash down to below £10million to boost its chances of securing funding.

Following a successful 'first round' bid, the council was invited to submit a business case to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

After further work involving the use of consultants and the council's economic regeneration company InvestSK, SKDC now has until July 31 to submit a business case to central government for funding under the scheme.

The cabinet decision will go to a financial scrutiny committee on June 30, with the full council being asked to approve the council's financial commitment on July 16, the report added.