Mary Portas offers support after Maidenhead fails funding bid

Retail guru Mary Portas has sent a message of support to Maidenhead artists after the town missed out on £100,000 of pilot funding.

Portas launched a search earlier this year for towns to share a pot of £1m of government cash to support ideas for improving their centres.

The Maidenhead bid centred around creativity in the community and  the success of the pop-up shops and Art on the Street.

Portas contacted Art on the Street via Twitter with the message: "Maidenhead street artists...you are exactly why this initiative is so important. Pilot town or not."

Co-director Marie Leonard, who was part of the bidding team, said the mood now is very much a case of 'onwards and upwards'.

She added that although it would have been nice to win the money, a lot of good things have happened in the two months since the bid was submitted, including the biggest Art on the Street to date on May 12.

Responding to Portas' tweet she said: "It was just a big boost for everybody."

Slough and Windsor also failed to secure Portas funding.

Successful areas included Wolverhampton, Croydon and Margate.