2.1 Funding Systems

Funding has two main areas to consider:
1. Influence & Policy – who has influence over funding will guide the priorities where it is spend. A Chief Officer will have the most influence over where funding found and spent.
2. Resources and Funding

1.   INFLUENCE: The opportunities
• The scope and nature of the public realm
• The relationships to other agendas
• The range of potential partners
• The political and public focus on the public realm
• The availability of related main stream funding systems

 2.   RESOUCES: The challenges
• Where to start looking for recourses
• How to pin down where to access resources
• How to get support from budget holders
• The street scene and public realm don’t fit into the main funding streams
• The division between capital and revenue funds. The nature of funding demands
• On their own often difficult to justify

 

2.2 How disparate funds affect the public realm

The powers that influence the public realm stem form several national and local government departments and interests. Similarly the funds come from a variety of sources. Most funds are only intended for specific purposes and are applied at different times. As a result there is little co-ordination. For example separate funds are applied to deal with: road maintenance, traffic measures – signs and lines, CCTV cameras, street lighting, cleansing – litter bins, waste collection – recycling bins, bus shelters, parking machines, facelift schemes, trees and flower baskets. The fund systems are Local Transport Plans, regeneration programmes, specific safety schemes, cycle schemes, walking to school schemes.

However, it should be possible to combine available funds so that they work together holistically to improve several aspects of the public realm at the same time.

Delivery systems affecting the public realm

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