People and businesses in Maryport are being urged to make the most of cash to spruce up their buildings.

Grants of up to £900 are available to people who live or have a shop in the town centre.

A pot of £50,000 has been made available for the facelift work by Allerdale borough council.

Already, £10,000 has been allocated across 12 businesses.

John George, who owns the cards and gift shop From The Heart of Maryport and Maryport News newsagents shop, both on Senhouse Street, has applied for the money.

He said: “We do take a pride in how our shops look.

“We undertook a full internal refit in the card and gift shop in April and the plan was to repaint the exterior at the same time.

“But we waited for the grant and now we have been able to repaint the full two stories of the facade, instead of just the first floor.

Mr George, who has owned the newsagents for 20 years, said he has now spent around £9,000 on refitting the neighbouring card and gift shop.

And he hopes more business owners in the town will take advantage of the facelift scheme.

He added: "Maryport suffers from property developers purchasing buildings and trying to let them out to shopkeepers who have no long term investment in the buildings.

“A lot of shopkeepers are not bothered abut the appearance of the buildings and the developers do them up as cheaply as they can.

“If you don’t reinvest in your business, it will only go in one direction.”

As part of a general clean-up scheme, shop front graphics have been fixed onto vacant stores in the town centre and the Mill Street lonning leading off Senhouse Street is also undergoing a clean-up.

The town council and the Allerdale authorities are keen to encourage shoppers to use the free parking available at the Mill Street car park and use the town more as the deadline for the new Lidl store approaches.

The company’s biggest supermarket in the country is on course to open at the end of October.

Application forms for the facelift grant are available from the town hall, at the Allerdale council customer services office.

The deadline for applications is December 31.