High Peak politicians in war of words over failure of £20m Levelling Up bid

The council had submitted a bid for investment in Glossop, including the restoration of the 19th century Victoria Hall as a modern performance venue, and the construction of a new leisure centre and ‘wellbeing hub’ in place of derelict former school buildings on Talbot Road.

It was hoped the projects could spark wider regeneration, adding to the ongoing £7m restoration of the town hall, but on Thursday, January 19, confirmation arrived from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities that the bid had been unsuccessful.

Local politicians have been united in expressing their disappointment, but differed on who to blame.

High Peak MP Robert Largan claimed that, while he had worked to put the borough in pole position compared with other areas competing for funds, the eventual bid had been badly prepared and scored poorly against allocation criteria used by civil servants.

He said: “The Labour-run council dragged their feet on every key decision – missing the deadline for the first round of funding – and excluded me from key moments in the decision-making process entirely.

“I had to consistently push the council to meet the required deadlines and to properly engage with local residents and key stakeholders. This was an historic opportunity for High Peak. It has sadly been squandered by Labour’s incompetence.”

Mr Largan added: “Thankfully, the Government has confirmed that there will be another chance to secure Levelling Up funding for High Peak. Again, I’ll do my best to work on a cross-party basis to develop a stronger bid – putting our case to the highest levels of government – to try and secure this funding.”

However, that view has been disputed by the council, which maintains it did everything possible to win support for its ambitious plans.

Leader Anthony Mckeown said: “We submitted a strong bid which had the support of a wide range of partners and stakeholders so it is bitterly disappointing that there is no funding for Glossop as part of the Levelling Up agenda.

“The schemes we proposed would have made a big impact on the wellbeing and health of our communities and further enhanced the multi-million pound investment the Council is making in Glossop Halls to regenerate the town centre and to return Victoria Hall to full use as a cultural venue.

“Instead, Glossop has been excluded from realising these wider benefits and we will need to look again at alternative ways of providing the modern health and leisure and arts and cultural amenities that we know the residents and businesses in Glossop want to see.”

Disputing a claim by Mr Largan that the council had shown little interest in adding to the bid with proposals for a new railway station in Gamesley, Coun Mckeown said: “As the borough council is not a transport authority we sought the advice of those authorities that are responsible, and they advised that they would not seek to make a bid to the Levelling Up fund for a station in Gamesley.

“We have, however, subsequently funded a study with our partners to try and resolve the issues with a view to making a possible future bid.”

Deputy council leader Damien Greenhalgh added: “We were hopeful that the proposals we put forward, which were developed with the support of local partners and stakeholders including the local MP, would have attracted this investment so we’re all, understandably, a little disheartened today.

“But our commitment to providing the modern facilities the High Peak and our communities deserve is undimmed. We have a fantastic group of volunteers at Victoria Hall who want to see investment in the building as much as we do and we’ll continue to pursue all options to make sure that happens.

“We’ll also need to re-consider how we can improve the leisure and wellbeing offer in Glossop so that people living and working here have access to the sort of amenities that other communities enjoy.”

Labour Party representatives have also pointed out that just one in five of all bids nationally had been successful, leaving many areas questioning the selection process and suggesting political and geographic bias may have played a part.

Just down the road, Tory-controlled Derbyshire Dales District Council was successful with a £15m bid to transform Ashbourne town centre.

But even Andy Street, the Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands, criticised the Levelling Up scheme, saying: “Fundamentally this episode is just another example as to why Whitehall’s bidding and begging bowl culture is broken, and the sooner we can decentralise and move to proper fiscal devolution the better.”

Jon Pearce, who will contest the High Peak parliamentary seat at the next General Election, was of a similar mind.

He said: “This is a bitter pill for all the residents and community groups who worked on this bid – and a major blow to the local economy at a time when we are facing the largest fall in living standards on record.

“It lays bare the truth that, despite all the rhetoric about levelling up, towns like ours in High Peak are not a priority for the Tories.

Taking aim at Mr Largan, Mr Pearce said: “The local Conservative MP has failed to deliver on his promises. He promised that following his lobbying efforts High Peak had been made one of the top priority areas for the Levelling Up Fund in the whole country.

“This Conservative government has deliberately created a system of winners and losers – today the people of Glossop and surrounding communities are the losers. In stark contrast, the next Labour government will give local leaders powers to drive growth and deliver prosperity in all our towns and communities.”

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