Members of Knowsley Council’s cabinet have called the government’s failure to award £20 million to Huyton’s regeneration plans “shameless.”
At a meeting of the council’s cabinet held on November 17, which met to discuss budget updates and the council’s corporate plan, councillors were keen to express their anger at losing out on funding from the first round of the government’s Levelling Up fund.
Cllr Jane Aston said: “The government is talking about the levelling up agenda but when it comes to allocating cash to areas that need it most, in my view they are all talk.”
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Billions of pounds of funding has been allocated to projects in local authorities across the country, although Knowsley’s £20 million bid for the regeneration of Huyton town centre was rejected last month.
The failure to secure funding left councillors bristling that despite the borough being a ‘priority one’ area, it had been “neglected once again” by the government, after earlier failing to secure future high street and towns deal funding.
Knowsley ’s 10-year plan for Huyton Village Centre includes the development of a commercial district, with a hotel, office, residential and co-working centre part of the proposals.
The demolition of a multi-storey car park on Derby road is set to be replaced by a “leisure-led mixed-use development” to provide spaces for community events and “for people and families to socialise and play”; and a station gateway to create an “improved sense of arrival into Huyton” also forms part of their proposals.
Running alongside this, a wider package of improvements to public realm, creation of green and environmentally friendly spaces and promoting access and connectivity into and out of the village centre are also planned.
The government says its £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, of which £1.7 billion has now been allocated “contributes to the levelling up agenda by investing in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centre and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.”
However, speaking at a cabinet meeting in Huyton’s municipal building on Wednesday night, cabinet member for resources Cllr Aston said: “The Levelling Up Fund is a discredited joke of a scheme, a bit like the scheme’s author the prime minister.
“Some [areas] have more than one bid approved, and despite being a priority area, [Knowsley] was ignored again, and our bid for Huyton Village was rejected.
“Our bid had been independently assessed as high quality but was still overlooked.
“As the second most deprived area, Knowsley has been repeatedly ignored by the government.
“The only box our scheme doesn’t tick is that little blue one at the bottom and once again the council will have to use its own resources to fund regeneration.”
Cabinet member for regeneration, Cllr. Tony Brennan added: “Huyton village is well under way in planning and levelling up funding would have accelerated that, but as noted once again the government has chosen to overlook the people of Knowsley in favour of more affluent areas of the country.
“They identified us as priority one for levelling up, yet despite our solid proposal and the government’s own so called priority list, our bid for Huyton was again not picked out for funding.
“A third from priority two and three areas were despite some being among the least deprived places in the country. They must have been at the top of another government list we haven’t seen.
“The concept of levelling up is nothing more than a slogan.
“I’ve requested an urgent explanation as to why it was not successful.”
Cllr Aston added: “The Tory government continues to treat areas like Knowsley with clear contempt, continues to ignore long term funding based on need in favour of pitting councils against each other, and seems more concerned with levelling up places represented by the health or culture secretary.
“It is a shameless use of government funds, levelling up hasn’t been anything more than a slogan.”
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