No bid from High Peak Borough Council for Levelling Up fund

The deadline for applications was midday on Friday June, 18 and when asked by The Advertiser, the authority confirmed it had not submitted a bid.

The Levelling Up fund will see the Government investing in local infrastructure projects to help regenerate towns and cities identified as being most in need of additional support.

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High Peak MP Robert Largan has expressed his frustration at the decision, after the borough was identified as one of the top priority areas for the fund, with a pledge of £100,000 funding to help with the bid.

He said: “I am very disappointed that High Peak Borough Council have not submitted a bid to the £4.8billion Levelling Up Fund.

“When the fund was first announced back in March, I held a meeting with the council to discuss how we could work together on possible bids.

"They agreed to look at the feasibility of some of the proposals discussed and come back to me.

“Unfortunately, despite my requests, the council refused to meet me again until this month, when they informed me that they would not be submitting a bid.”

The Government has announced there will be a second round of funding applications at a later date which the council want to apply for.

Councillor Anthony Mckeown, Leader of High Peak Borough Council, said: “In common with many Government funding schemes, the Levelling Up Fund has a number of strict criteria and requirements that the council must meet before it can submit a bid.

“At this time, we will be looking at submitting a bid in round two of the Levelling Up Fund along with working with our MP to try and get changes to part of the Treasury assessment to better reflect the social impact a successful bid could have.

“This need to meet the bidding criteria has been recognised by Government making available support funding for councils to get any necessary support in preparing any bids – unfortunately this funding is not available until after the first round closes for bids. The council’s Executive will be considering a report about this soon and we’ll be in a position to say more following that.”

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