Beckum receives 630,000 euros for the redesign of the church square

The city and the parish have the common goal of upgrading the historic nucleus of Beckum through coordinated planning of the central locations of the market square and St. Stephanus church square and making a significant contribution to the revitalisation of the city centre.

The funds granted in excess of the original funding will be used for the redesign of St Stephen's church square and the adjacent pathways. They were needed because the funds budgeted for this were not sufficient for the finds and necessary work. As the people of Beckum noticed, the excavations brought the construction work to a prolonged standstill. These extensive finds, such as the large gravestones from the 15th century or a fragment of a so-called pilgrim's horn, could by no means have been planned in the past, although work lasting several weeks was already included in the cost calculations of 22 May 2020.

At the same time, the construction period falls within the known environment of construction cost increases due to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation, which were not foreseeable in 2020. This makes the approved additional funding all the more pleasing for the project sponsors, the city and the church. In particular, the way in which Beckum's past has been dealt with and the otherwise reliable implementation of projects were convincing arguments in favour of additional funding. Mayor Michael Gerdhenrich welcomes the good news: "I am very pleased that we have already received funding this year. It shows that we were able to convince the district government and the state with our arguments in favour of the measure."

The funds were approved at short notice by the Münster district government as part of a grant notification for the 2023 financial year. The funding comes from funds that other local authorities were unable to realise as part of their approved projects, known as leftover expenditure. In this way, the city of Beckum was the only municipality in the administrative district to receive additional funding for ongoing urban development projects. The funding is being provided as part of the integrated action and measures concept (IHMK) for Beckum town centre in the "Vibrant centres" programme line. The funding rate is 70 per cent, which means that the additional costs of EUR 900,000 were taken into account for a grant of EUR 630,000.