A Nottinghamshire MP has claimed the council in his area is playing two of its towns "off against each other" over Government funding. The Bassetlaw district is home to the towns of Worksop and Retford, but only the former received £20 million from the Levelling Up Fund last year.
The money will mainly be used on Worksop's Priory Centre, with new facilities being built including tenpin bowling and a trampoline park. The Levelling Up Fund comes on top of several other pots of funding available to councils, such as the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
But Brendan Clarke-Smith, the Conservative MP for Bassetlaw, said that the Labour-led district council had not applied for Retford to receive any of these funds. He said: "My constituents in Retford feel neglected by the Labour district council, which has yet to apply for any funds for the town and is more concerned with trying to play the two towns off against each other.
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"Could the PM confirm that there is no reason whatsoever why Retford cannot benefit from this latest investment?" The latest investment referred to by Mr Clarke-Smith is Levelling Up Partnerships announced by the Government, worth £400 million over two years.
The partnerships were announced in the budget, with Bassetlaw being one of 20 areas across England chosen to host one. There were fears that Retford would again miss out on this funding, given that the Government said in March: "Our starting assumption is that we will work with the largest urban area within these local authorities, unless there is a strong rationale for choosing somewhere else."
Worksop is the larger of the two towns, and it was therefore assumed that it would once again be the only one to benefit. But Brendan Clarke-Smith said given Worksop had already had £20 million, there was "no reason" why Retford should not get investment this time.
This was also confirmed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who responded to Mr Clarke-Smith by saying: "The levelling up secretary is looking forward to working with colleagues in Bassetlaw to identify the best place to focus their work, which could of course include Retford." The leader of Bassetlaw District Council has now responded to Mr Clarke-Smith's claim that the authority is playing Worksop and Retford off against each other.
Labour's Councillor James Naish said that £3.4 million of UK Shared Prosperity Funding, plus an anticipated £700,000 or Rural England Prosperity Fund money, would be spent across the whole of Bassetlaw - including Retford. He also said Mr Clarke-Smith was part of the board that submitted Bassetlaw's last Levelling Up Fund bid, with criteria stating that each local authority would be "capped at one successful bid."
Councillor Naish added: "We have been informed that we are one of the 20 areas selected as part of a new £400m Levelling Up Partnership. So far, we have had no detail of how this fund will operate and are seeking clarifications from ministers.
"It is our intention, if the fund criteria allows, to ensure that the area as a whole continues to build on the positive story emerging in Bassetlaw about rejuvenated town centres and modern, high-skilled industries choosing to locate here... As a council, we are fully committed to working with key agencies and significant stakeholders like Bassetlaw's MP to maximise the success of any future investment in local areas, and look forward to putting bids forward for consideration as part of the Government's funding schemes."
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