Getting to grips with £12m Levelling Up Fund bid
Ashbourne Town Team’s ALBERT GOLDING returns with the latest on the town’s bid for a slice of the Levelling Up Fund
AT Derbyshire Dales District Council’s (DDDC) Community & Environment Committee last week it was agreed that Ashbourne’s bid for major town centre improvements, totalling more than £12 million, will be further assessed over the next few weeks.
This assessment will also include a potential bid from Matlock for a series of improvements that have yet to be developed.
Derbyshire Dales District Council is now committing real resources to ensuring that a successful Levelling Up Fund (LUF) bid is submitted in 2022. Some £300,000 was approved by the district council last week to prepare the bid.
This includes the appointment of a new Bid Director, Michael
Rich, and a Project Development Team that will assist in the further development of the Ashbourne LUF bid.
Most important is the creation of a Project Management Board to oversee the development of the LUF bid which will involve senior council officers and consultants plus key stakeholder representatives.
Ashbourne Town Team and Ashbourne Town Council expect to be included in this Board which will drive the LUF bid forward.
Critical to the success of the LUF bid is the involvement of the County Council which has responsibility for highways and education matters in Ashbourne.
Derbyshire County Council through our local ward members, Councillors Simon Spencer and Steve Bull are fully supportive of the Ashbourne bid.
Moreover the county council has already committed £250,000 to make pedestrian safety in the town centre a priority in Ashbourne.
This is a critical part of the Ashbourne LUF proposal and was fully covered in a recent article on the bid in this paper.
The Ashbourne LUF bid also has the full support of our DDDC ward councillors.
Our councillors are engaged and committed to improving our town centre and are working closely with the chair of the Town Team, Anne Wright, to ensure that Ashbourne speaks with one united voice in improving our town.
Ashbourne Town Council, working in partnership with the Ashbourne Town Team, is now looking at positive ways to improve the town through potential land acquisition.
This new initiative by the town council was covered in last week’s Ashbourne News Telegraph and is another positive sign that all key organisations in Ashbourne are acting with common purpose to make the town better.
Next Steps
Our Ashbourne LUF proposals will be progressed over the next month in conjunction with the district council’s senior officers and their specialist LUF bid team.
Attention is being focused on delivery of projects against a fixed timetable of real improvements happening over the next two years.
The Ashbourne Town Team met with Bid Director Michael Rich and the project management consultants, last Friday to consider what will happen next.
It was agreed that our bid needs to demonstrate that there will be real economic and employment benefits through the investment of Government funding.
The need therefore of increasing the number of people and businesses living and working in the town centre will be critical.
We already know that some businesses are waiting to see what the LUF bid can do for Ashbourne before finalising investment plans in the town centre.
We need therefore to give confidence to businesses that what we are proposing can be achieved and delivered in a short timescale of two years.
The district council, their consultant team and the Town Team will be working on this over the next few weeks.
Local governance and the way all organisations work in partnership to deliver the LUF proposals will be a very important factor in securing major Government investment in Ashbourne. Partnership is the key to success with local government, local businesses and community organisations all pulling in the same direction – the implementation of the Ashbourne Strategic Plan!
Our proposals for implementing a safe and attractive town centre are progressing well.
We hope to bring forward the first stage of the Ashbourne Traffic Management Strategy shortly for public consultation.
The same applies to what we can do to really enhance Market Place/ Victoria Square Plan and the town’s numerous lanes and ginnels.
We have a strong and coherent regeneration strategy for the town and now need to focus on delivery.
One of the areas where we need to do more work quickly is on the proposed new east-west green corridor from the recreation ground to the Waterside.
This major cross-town link alongside the Henmore is a new opportunity for an outstanding pedestrian, environmental and leisure corridor that links the town centre to all parts of Ashbourne and the surrounding villages. More on this next week. Please get behind the Ashbourne LUF bid.
We already know that some businesses are waiting to see what the LUF bid can do before finalising any investment