A £3,800 gorilla statue in Tiverton and £150 gift-wrapping classes in Rotherham were among the items paid for in the second round of Portas Pilot spending, new figures have revealed.
Eleven Portas Pilots received £1.9m in funding 18 months ago but have spent just £696,000 – or 36% – of the cash available to them.
Funding also went on a security guard in Lowestoft (£819); a ‘Portas’ logo in Brighton (£1,000); and a refurbished toilet block in Berwick on Tweed (£10,000); and a “cleaning lady entertainer” (£350) and an Easter egg hunt (£150) in Braintree.
However, the lion’s share of the money spent so far in the second round of funding has gone on administrative, marketing and staff costs.
The figures were obtained under Freedom of Information requests made by high-streets campaigner Paul Turner-Mitchell, who said it was disappointing the Portas Pilots had not used the opportunity to be more innovative.
“These are supposed to be pilots but they are not blazing a trail of innovation and they are not having a really meaningful impact,” he said. “Throwing paltry sums of money at a few towns without addressing the key structural issues like business rates was never going to arrest long-term decline.
“What we need to see is a series of pilots based on long-term business plans with a long-term vision.”
A DCLG spokeswoman said: “Up and down the country, the Portas Pilots are helping get empty shops back into use, support local markets and adopt shopper-friendly parking policies.
”There is no deadline for spending - councils should instead be ensuring that the money is spent wisely, and councils should be held to account by the press and public if they have not.”
Last week, the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee of MPs found that much of the Portas Pilot funding had yet to be accounted for, despite a promise by the minister responsible, Brandon Lewis, to supply further information.
“There is no readily available data on the allocation of the funds, and, as far as we are aware, no organisation is auditing the funds,” the BIS committee said.
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