TENDRING is in line for five years of lottery support for heritage projects set to "protect, promote and celebrate the area’s rich history".

The district is one of 13 places across the country and just two in the eastern region that have been chosen by the National Heritage Lottery Fund as priority areas.

It means they will be given special support and guidance to help apply for funding.

A spokesman for the fund said: "These are called areas of focus.

"They were selected on the basis of the top 25 per cent of local authority areas on the index of multiple deprivation and where they coincided with local authority areas that have received the lowest level of funding for us.

"We will be focusing on engagement work – looking at things like capacity building, raising awareness of our funding and support for networking organisations and individual groups who want to apply for our funding."

Over the five years the special status lasts for, the heritage fund will help groups create the best applications for cashpots they can for projects with a heritage element.

This can include historic houses and buildings, museums, and churches as well as natural heritage including parks, oral histories and archives, as well as regeneration of high streets.

Ian Davidson, chief executive of Tendring Council, welcomed the heritage fund special status.

He said: “The additional support being offered by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to Tendring is great news for the district as it means organisations including ourselves looking to protect, promote and celebrate our area’s rich history have a much greater chance of being successful in funding this work.

“Heritage is important for Tendring, whether it be celebrating our fantastic history or enhancing our tourism offer, such as the Mayflower 400 celebrations in 2020 in Harwich, our historic buildings such as Martello Towers, or the Resorting to the Coast project with Essex County Council looking at the history of seaside resorts.”

Tendring and Luton were the only areas in the eastern region to be chosen.

For more information about the National Lottery Heritage Fund and how to apply visit heritagefund.org.uk.