Scarborough misses out on £10m funding to improve town centre
Scarborough has missed out on receiving a share of up to £830 million from the Government.
Scarborough has missed out on receiving a share of up to £830 million from the Government.
A bid was put forward last July for £10 million from the Future High Streets Fund.
At the time, Scarborough Borough Council and the Scarborough Town Centre Strategy Team said:
"If the bid is successful, it will open up opportunities to create a mixed use town centre with a diverse economy and an inviting place that everyone can be proud of. It will also help to support our ambition for Scarborough to become a university town.
The funding would go towards repurposing empty buildings and creating new public spaces, greening the high street and creating a cleaner and more attractive environment, investing in public IT infrastructure, driving new industries into the town centre such as education, creative and digital, and delivering events and activities for all ages to attract more people into the town centre and help to create a fully inclusive community."
At full council yesterday, the authority's Leader, Steve Siddons, said:
"On Boxing Day, the Government announced those Councils that had been successful in the Future High Streets Fund. Scarborough was not on that list. This is disappointing to say the least, as the Government had specifically named Scarborough in its press releases on the subject.
"The Chancellor at the time, Philip Hammond, originally set up this fund with £675 million and Boris Johnson added to that pot, making it up to £1 billion. Suddenly late last year, £300 million of the Future High Streets money was moved into the Government's new 'Levelling Up' fund.
"The optimist among us may say that those towns in line for the bigger £25 million pot in the Towns Fund should not get two bites of the cherry and scoop an extra £10 million on top from the High Street Fund.
"However, just to be sure, I am looking for assurances from our local MP Robert Goodwill that the money targeted at getting Scarborough town centre moving will still be granted one way or another."
The Leader of the council’s Conservative group, Cllr Derek Bastiman, said in a statement that questions had to be asked of the authority’s leadership.
He said:
"The government funding would doubtless have triggered other inward investment into the area.
"It does raise the question of the quality of the bid put forward by the Labour/Independent administration and whether it could have been more robust if the business world in the borough had been encouraged to be involved along with all the groups on the council."