As part of the Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy, Barking and Dagenham council set to hand out more than £2.5 million to community projects in the borough.
At the next cabinet meeting on 15 October, nine out of 18 projects have been recommended for approval. These range from building refurbishments and supporting new football centres, to tackling litter.
Community projects would also include improvements like new lighting in pedestrian areas, more plants and trees, and a new playground in Parsloes Park.
If the funding is approved, the biggest winner would be the Becontree estate.
Ahead of the 100th anniversary of the historic development, six projects to regenerate the area are getting more than £770,000 over three years, which is approximately £250,000 a year.
Box Up Crime, a charity that’s been working in the borough to help young people out of gangs since 2013, has been recommended for £300,000 of funding to refurbish its building, which is on a 20-year lease to the charity from the council.
The largest single-year project that’s been recommended is a project to extend the Thames Clipper further east, all the way to Barking.
If approved, £600,000 would be put towards getting river access for the sprawling Barking Riverside development in the south of the borough.
Among the community projects is a £2 million bid for improvements to the new Greatfields Secondary School, which opened in 2016.
Since 2018, the council has tripled the number of projects it wants to allocate funding.
