MP says Scarborough's Future High Street Fund bid wasn't strong enough
Robert Goodwill has been giving us his reaction to the news that the town has missed out on a share of government cash
Scarborough and Whitby's MP Robert Goodwill says the reason why Scarborough's bid for money from the government's Future High Street Fund was unsuccessful is because it wasn't strong enough.
He's been giving us his reaction to the news which we brought you last week, that the town has missed out on getting a share of the £830 million on offer.
If Scarborough had got some of the cash, it would have been used to create new public spaces, improve IT infrastructure, and re-use empty buildings in the town centre.
Robert Goodwill MP said:
"The government knew it would have a surplus of applications, and it looked at those very carefully, this is taxpayer's money, to see what would have the most cost benefit. The government were not content that the cost benefit analysis that the council had undertaken was sound.
"The key measure was the uplift in property values that they had calculated would be in there, and they disagreed with that.
"There are plenty of good opportunities that the council still have irons in the fire for, revamping our town centre, improving tourism, improving opportunities for young people. This was a competition, and we fell below the cut.
"We should now look at where we can continue to get money, we've already had money from central government, and I'm not too disheartened that we failed on this particular one because there are other schemes that the council are working on, and I'm involved in some of those discussions to bring them forward.
"I sit on both town fund boards, the one in Whitby and the one in Scarborough, and there's some good exciting projects there, which will create employment, which will improve the cultural offer of both towns, and also improve opportunities for young people.