A council that saw its hopes dashed in a City of Culture bid is set to use £40,000 from the failed application process to boost the arts scene.

Last month Great Yarmouth Borough Council and East Suffolk Council were told their joint bid for City of Culture 2025 status had been rejected by the government.

The borough council had set aside the £40,000 from a special projects reserve pot of cash if the bid had passed onto the next stage of the process.

And now the £40,000 pot of money looks set to boost the Yarmouth area in a drive to fund events and activities across the borough.

It is said the allocation of money could help both councils in any further bid for City of Culture status.

The potential funding comes as Great Yarmouth celebrates the success of the Out There Festival and Fire on the Water, which attracted a total of 100,000 people.

On Monday night the borough council's economic development committee will look at the request to re-allocate the special projects funding.

Committee papers say: "Whilst the bid was unfortunately not successful, the two councils remain committed to commencing delivery of a joint cultural programme over the coming years delivering out one of the themes identified under the 2025 submission.

"This will be jointly developed under a ‘Cultural Coast’ brand to continue to evidence the capability and capacity to deliver a shared cultural programme in line with the aspirations set out as part of the original bid.

"Whilst the bid did not progress past the submission stage, members are requested to reallocate the £40,000 special projects budget to the delivery of a programme of events and activities on one of the themes (yet to be identified) from the original bid."

If approved the papers say: "This will ultimately add value to the council’s partnership work and any future City of Culture application."

The committee will also be asked to approve the council becoming what is called a tier one partner of the borough's Cultural Consortium, which is led by Out There Arts and seeks £3.2m investment from Arts Council England.