Communities in Monmouthshire are set to receive a six-figure sum to improve the appearance of town centres in the county.

The Tidy Towns Fund, which is designed to provide local authorities with adequate funding to do things like clearing footpaths and replacing public bins, has seen Monmouthshire earmarked for further investment for taking pride in its towns.

Funding comes from the Welsh Government, with £5 million earmarked for investment across the whole of Wales to spend on tidying up.

The First Minister, Eluned Morgan, praised the investment.

"Tidy Towns is about belonging, restoring pride in where we live and caring for the parts of our communities that make home, home,” she said.

“Pride in our places means pride in ourselves and I am delighted that local authorities across Wales have already got to work uplifting our communities through the fund, delivering for the people of Wales.”

A social media post calling out Abergavenny Town Centre for its appearance gained attention from the Chronicle this week, as our reporter asked whether it really was a ‘Dirty Old Town.’ You can read that story here.

While it should be made absolutely clear that the investment is not as a result of the opinions shared online, the announcement will be welcome despite the lack of clarity on where Monmouthshire County Council is most likely to spend the added funds.

Welsh Labour says this is another example of power in partnership delivering for the people of Wales, with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government saying she hopes the funding will help restore pride in where people live.

"At Welsh Labour Conference in June, we announced our Tidy Towns Fund to boost community pride in towns and neighbourhoods across Wales,” Jane Bryant said.

“The fund complements our existing Transforming Towns programme which is delivering regeneration projects right across Wales.”

“Tidy Towns will help restore pride of place and strengthen that sense of belonging and fulfilment that the places we call home bring our communities every day.”

Each local authority in Wales will receive a share of the new fund to carry out the work, which could include general repairs to footpaths; replacing signs; refurbishing bus shelters and street furniture; removing litter, clearing fly-tipping and overgrown areas and painting murals.

Monmouthshire County Council said that now the funding has been confirmed, it needs to conform to the criteria set out by the Welsh Government in order for work to be carried out.

A spokesperson told the Chronicle that they are currently looking at a range of small scale works across the county.

"We are currently developing a programme of works that meet the Tidy Towns funding criteria,” they said.

“This funding will assist us in delivering a range of small scale works across the county that improve the environment and help us deliver against the many requests we have from our communities"

The fund complements the Welsh Government’s existing £100 million Transforming Towns programme, which turns underused, empty or run-down properties into businesses, housing, leisure facilities, commercial premises or community facilities.