As mentioned in last night's Extra, Extra, 30 projects to improve town centres and high streets have been awarded cash from the Mayor's Outer London fund.
There's £650k for Barking Town Centre, the Enfield Highway in Ponders End gets £715k for a revamp and new street market, £99k goes to Haringey's regular Food Glorious Food festival and a much needed £125k is awarded to Catford Broadway. Wealthy borough Richmond gets the pick of the cash, with £1.2m for three projects (including making the Christmas lights in Barnes nicer).
Ken Livingstone has dubbed the scheme a "pre-election gimmick" and while it's true that, for example, Lewisham needs millions to complete its plans for Catford and looks like it's going to rely heavily on Tesco, surely every little helps?
While we're here, though, we're going to raise a minor question about the definition of 'outer' London: Islington, Lewisham and Lambeth are considered Inner boroughs, or is it that Archway, Catford, West Norwood and Streatham are thought to be far enough out that they qualify?
