North Shields mayor Dame Norma Redfearn will write to the Prime Minister to urge him to review a decision which saw North Shields and Wallsend lose out on £20m worth of Levelling Up Funds.
North Tyneside Council's Labour majority voted in favour of an emergency motion last night asking the Mayor to plead with Rishi Sunak and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Michael Gove MP, to review the decision.
Deputy Carl Johnson said: "Members across the chamber will have seen the disgraceful decision of the conservative government not to award funding to Wallsend and North Shields. We had real and strong cases for investment in Wallsend and the Fish Quay, this money would have secured the cross Tyne ferry which has run for over 100 years, this is now in jeopardy as a result of this Conservative government.
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"We see what we can do when the government does back us, we have seen a regeneration of the Whitley Bay coastline and North Shields Town Centre. When the conservative government put up the cash and lets us get on, we are able to regenerate the borough.
"We have the highest levels of child poverty in the country, and we have not been deemed worthy enough.
The motion read: "The Tories have let our area down while gifting £19m to Rishi Sunak's leafy Richmond constituency.
"The Council believes The Conservative Government made us bid with one hand tied behind our back by capping our bid scores at 80% deeming us not a priority while the Prime Minister's own constituency and many marginal seats with Conservative MPs are deemed a priority".
Rishi Sunak has come under fire after a military town in his own parliamentary constituency of Richmond, Catterick Garrison, was allocated £19m of Levelling Up Funds.
The local conservative councillors whilst expressing disappointment at the government's decision said they could not back the motion as it was "highly politicised".
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Tynemouth tory councillor Lewis Bartoli said: "The members on this side were equally disappointed, we wanted that funding as much as you did. I can speak personally for my ward, moving the ferry into Tynemouth would have tied up the embankment walkway into Howard Street and eventually into Northumberland Square, it would have been a boom for the area.
"We would like to make this a cross-party motion, it would carry more weight as a cross-party motion, but unfortunately we cannot accept the first paragraphs which have highly politicised the motion."
One conservative councillor branded the motion "disgusting", claiming it was an affront to military service personnel.
Tory Preston councillor Liam Bones said: "I agree with councillor Bartoli that we are happy to support the asks of this motion, but the idea that we should be pitting somewhere our troops are based against areas within our own borough is frankly disgusting.
"It doesn't take two minutes for the Labour Party to revert back to bashing our troops at Catterick Garrison."
Coun Bones, when asked by Labour councillors, refused to withdraw his comments. His comments were branded "disgraceful" by the chairman of North Tyneside Council, Pat Oliver.
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Coun Bones continued: "The motion specifically refers to the £19m bid which was successful for Catterick Garrison, now for some reason, this motion seems to imply this is less worthy than the bids for North Shields and Wallsend and personally, I think our troops deserve better than that".
Labour councillor and ex-serviceman Andy Newman responded: "I served in Catterick Garrison, it was the last place I was posted. Now the service accommodation in Catterick Garrison has been rated as unfit for human habitation. It's not just Catterick Garrison but many other service accommodations.
"Michael Gove has said he has real concerns over the state of service accommodation. That is service accommodation that has been managed by the Conservative Party for 12 years. So, if anyone is bashing our troops, I don't think it is the Labour Party.
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"It was your party who sacked 25,000 soldiers after serving in two war zones, I don't think you can lecture us on how we treat our service personnel."
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