They've been handed £20m - but can it really change lives?

If someone handed your neighbourhood £20m, what would you spend it on?

That is the question facing residents in two communities in the West Country after they were each awarded £20m through the government's Pride in Place programme.

The money could be used to improve everything from youth services and green spaces to skills training and community projects.

But for many residents in Bridgwater in Somerset and Hartcliffe in Bristol, the bigger question is whether millions of pounds of investment can deliver lasting change.

Some areas have seen regeneration schemes come and go. This time, local people hope things will be different.

In south Bridgwater, a largely residential area including the Hamp estate and West Street has been chosen for the funding.

Leading the local ten-year programme is Sam Smith, an insurance broker and volunteer football coach who grew up in the area.

"This area did so much for me it's about giving back and making sure other people can have a wonderful experience as well," he told me, standing outside the gates of his former secondary school.

For Sam, helping young people is a priority.

His dad ran the local youth football team, when Sam was growing up.

A couple of years ago, on a night out, a local man said to him: "Your dad saved my life - without football, I wouldn't have got into sport, I'd be in jail no two ways about it."

Inspired by that conversation, Sam decided to revive Rhode Lane Wanderers.

It now has more than 100 youngsters from the estate taking part and has shown Sam something he wants to take into his new role.

"It's making sure all these children have got a focus - whether that's football, something in the arts, something completely individual to them," he said.

"We want to make sure they've got a focus so they stay on the straight and narrow."

So far, Sam's been gathering up ideas from other local people with a series of drop-in events.

Youth provision has come up as one of the main themes, along with security and safety and green spaces, he said.

"People want the basics. They want cleaner streets, potholes filled, better streetlights but there's so much more you could do with this money.

"We want people to think big," Sam said.

Sharon Harry has lived on the Hamp estate for 20 years and said she would not want to live anywhere else.

Singing the praises of her friendly neighbours, she admitted £20m sounds like a lot of money "but it won't go as far as people imagine".

"I'd like to see the money spent in a way that when the money's gone, things can continue anyway," she said.

"Otherwise, if you start something, people get used to it, and then it stops. That's worse than if you didn't do it in the first place," Sharon said.

Another resident, Sue Devenish, believes the money should not be used to cover work that other organisations should already be funding.

Instead, she would like to see improvements that make everyday life better.

"Everything's quite a mess, there's no pride in the front gardens. I walk into town and everything's overgrown," she said.

"So for me, it's just about making the surroundings more pleasant. But I guess for other people of the younger age group, it's about different priorities.

"I've seen lots of change in Hamp and I just think these days people kind of do lack the pride - but equally maybe they lack the skills to be able to make their lives nicer and maybe just need a little bit of a helping hand to move things forward."

Thirty miles (48 km) north of Bridgwater, Hartcliffe and Withywood in south Bristol is another of the 169 places in England awarded Pride in Place funding.

The man in charge of its £20m budget is another Mr Smith - no relation to Sam from Bridgwater - Paul Smith.

His patch is the 16th most-deprived place in the country, and the most deprived in the south-west of England, Paul said.

And government cash is not new around here, yet many residents still face significant challenges.

"We've had regeneration funding before but it obviously hasn't changed the dial, partly because of how much it was - but partly because it's not tackled the right things," he said.

"Maybe investing too much in providing new buildings and facilities rather than investing in people.

"What we need to do is make sure the effect of the regeneration is that more money goes into the pockets of the people who live here."

Tongue-in-cheek he suggested the best use of the funds would be to give every resident £1,000 in cash - but apparently that's against the rules.

"I've seen regeneration schemes where there's been lots of stuff going on. And it's been great for, say, the five or 10 years that the money's come in.

"Then the money's stopped, and then everything else stops. And all the people who've been coming here running projects all disappear. And people are left a bit bereft.

"What I really want to do is work on skills - training people locally to get them to a position where they move from minimum wage jobs to well-paid careers. And that's how you make the difference," Paul said.

A former Labour city councillor, he does not want to spend the Pride in Place money on "things other people should spend money on".

So while, he said, the local primary school is being held up by scaffolding, and the health centre really needs a "massive revamp", Paul plans to lobby government departments to sort those issues out, with additional funding.

Follow BBC Somerset on Facebook and X. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.