Gloucester’s budget joy – but
GLOUCESTERSHIRE was the only major winner in the West yesterday in terms of new infrastructure spending as Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivered the Budget in Parliament.
It was successful with three separate applications totalling more than £50 million to the Government’s flagship £4.8 billion ‘Levelling-Up Fund’.
But elsewhere the region was treated less well, with the only other sizeable new announcement being £10 million of improvements to the A38 near Bridgwater gaining funding.
In total only six of the 105 successful bids to the fund were from the South West – compared to 28 in the North and 23 in the Midlands.
Phil Smith, managing director of Business West said: “The West Country continued to broadly lose out from the Chancellor’s largesse.
“With a very long list of individual projects and schemes announced, dominated by northern constituencies and the devolved nations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. We are still not getting cut through in central government for the support our region needs.”
The Gloucestershire bids that gained funding were £20 million for improvements to Gloucester city centre, including the transformation of the former Debenhams store into a campus for the University of Gloucestershire and funding for The Forge, a hi-tech business centre.
Richard Graham, MP for Gloucester, said: “Simply fantastic news for all our ambitions for the City Centre and Gloucester.”
Vice Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire, Stephen Marston, said: “The University of Gloucestershire is delighted. This funding means the University can now move ahead with even greater pace, confidence and determination with our major redevelopment of the Debenhams building to form our new City Campus.”
The Forest of Dean also had a £20 million bid approved that will redevelop the Five Acres site at Coleford as a leisure destination with a centre for sporting excellence with a satellite site for Hartpury University and Hartpury College, along with a new University Innovation, Careers and Enterprise Learning Centre at Hartpury. The funding will also be used to help regenerate Cinderford Town Centre which includes bringing vacant buildings back into productive use.
Cllr Tim Gwilliam, Leader of Forest of Dean District Council, said: “This funding will be able to make a real difference to our community. It will improve education opportunities, improve leisure and sporting facilities and help to grow our local economy.”
The third Gloucestershire project to gain funding was a £12.8 million bid to improve sustainable travel options at Gloucester Docks.
The biggest slice of levelling-up funding awarded anywhere in the South West was £48.4 million to improve Isles of Scilly ferry services.
Mr Sunak also confirmed the widely trailed £540 million funding for improvements to public transport in the West of England over the next five years.
As reported by the Western Daily Press earlier this week, the West of England was the only major cityregion in the country to receive its bare minimum funding allocation.
In the summer the Government had indicated there was up to £880 million available.
The funding will be used to improve bus services between Bristol and Bath – largely by providing a fully-prioritised route so that buses aren’t held up by cars.
James Durie, chief executive of Bristol Chamber of Commerce & Initiative, said: “The West of England saw some welcome investments in transport, with a headline £540 million in transport investment.
“However, this looks small in comparison to Northern cities, with Greater Manchester and the West
Midlands receiving a billion pounds each, whilst West Yorkshire gets a £830 million. It also means many other critical transport corridors in the Bristol and Bath city region remain poorly served, particularly in comparison to other English cities who benefit from much more comprehensive mass transit systems of bus, rail and tram/metro.
“As a growth region, which makes a net contribution to the Treasury, has a growing economy and significant planned housing in the coming years, and is working hard to decarbonise itself, much larger investment and a more ambitious approach to infrastructure is urgently needed. We are disappointed that these needs remain unmet.”
Further south there was funding to develop plans to reopen the railway station at Wellington in Somerset.
The Devon & Somerset Metro group gained £5 million to continue work on exploring improving rail servies between Taunton and Exeter.
Taunton MP Rebecca Pow said:
“Delighted that the Chancellor has listened to the case I put forward with Neil Parish in conjunction with the Devon & Somerset Metro group and has announced £5 million development funding to progress our plans to open rail stations in Wellington and Cullompton.”
The Chancellor also announced smaller £50,000 grants to develop early-stage proposals to reopen railway stations at Corsham, near Bath, and Stonehouse Bristol Road in Gloucestershire.
The West Country continued to broadly lose out from the Chancellor’s largesse PHIL SMITH