Lichfield too posh for levelling up funding, says MP
Lichfield never had a hope of being awarded any levelling up funding as it too posh, an MP has said.
District council chiefs were knocked back in a bid for £5 million from the Government's levelling up fund they had hoped would help build a new leisure centre.
But Tory MP Michael Fabricant said the bid was "always going to be a long shot" because Lichfield is a place that "less fortunate areas aspire to level up to".
In the Budget last week Chancellor Rishi Sunak awarded £1.7 billion in the first round of levelling up funding, including £20m each for Cannock and Wolverhampton.
Lichfield MP Mr Fabricant said: "That bid was always going to be a long shot, but it was worth a try.
"In his introduction to the Fund’s Prospectus, Rishi Sunak says ‘While the Fund is open to every local area, it is especially intended to support investment in places where it can make the biggest difference to everyday life, including ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and coastal communities'.
"I think that even the most talented fiction writers would have had a job persuading the Treasury that Lichfield fitted into that category.
"The city and district are a Tier 3 area: that is, of the type that other, less fortunate areas, aspire to level up to."
Lichfield Council said it remained committed to building the new leisure centre, which is planned for Stychbrook Park and will eventually replace Friary Grange Leisure Centre.
Councillor Iain Eadie, cabinet member for leisure, said: "We would like to get new facilities open as quickly as possible and will keep looking at how we can do that, alongside how we deliver regeneration in Lichfield District as a whole."
A council task group is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the recent consultation around the potential use of some of Stychbrook Park for new leisure facilities.
