Just under £200,000 of levelling up funding has been allocated to a PR agency. 

Rutland County Council and Melton Borough Council were jointly awarded £23m in January 2023 after a bid for levelling up funding was successful.  

The four projects under the collective Rural Innovation in Action scheme are a new medical training centre, new transport hub and a digital museum experience all in Oakham, as well as a £12m new food hub in Melton at the Stockyard. 

The Rutland projects are progressing, with a planning application submitted this year for the £4.5m transport hub in Rutland County Council's Jules House building on Cold Overton Road, which will be called the Local Link. 

The digital project at the museum is part of a larger project to re-model the museum and house the dinosaur fossil that was found at Rutland Water during the pandemic. Rutland County Council has made a lottery bid for the additional money. 

As part of the projects the two neighbouring councils have contracted Nottingham-based Cartwright Communications for a sum of £199,120 for two years work.  

This works out as an average of £8,000 per month. The contract runs from last April to March next year. 

The councils says the external communications agency was contracted to provide additional support to its own two in-house PR teams due to the 'scale of the programme'. 

In an issued joint statement, the councils say: "The £23million joint RIIA programme is funded by UK Government. The communications work is valued at £199,120 across a 25-month period, which is equivalent to 0.9% of the overall programme budget.

"All scheme costs are scrutinised and approved by the Government. Government has provided Levelling Up Funding programmes with a small proportion of revenue funding to resource their management and communication to maximise the impact of the schemes.  

"The RIIA contract was awarded via tender through a government approved procurement process. The agency was appointed to deliver the RIIA communications programme as a result of a national competitive process and bring additional value as an East Midlands supplier.  

"To date, the agency has fulfilled all requirements of the contract including monthly retained services of PR, search engine optimisation, content creation and social media management in addition to creation of capital project branding, full design services, stakeholder strategy and management, full marketing channel set up and management, in person event support and attendance.    

"The agency has provided a comprehensive service and extensive support to the RIIA programme and both Rutland County Council and Melton Borough Council."