Where’s the ambition for overlooked town?
GIVEN the recent upheaval in government and the associated financial fallout, you can perhaps be forgiven for having doubts as to their commitment and approach towards certain policies.
And given the fiscal challenges that they have created for themselves, many may have thought that capital spending and things like the Levelling Up Fund may well have been on the block.
However, the Government reaffirmed their position towards Levelling Up – at least for the foreseeable future – in Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement last week, which is good news for local authorities who are committed to projects, and those that have made submissions to the latest round of the Levelling Up Fund.
One such authority is Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, who in August bid for £40million to ‘deliver regeneration projects in Cheadle and Leek’.
Leader of the District Council Paul Roberts has described the proposals as ‘ambitious’, and I’m sure they are.
Yet it would appear that the council’s ambition doesn’t extend to Biddulph, which is more than a little disappointing to say the least.
As with many places, the town’s High Street is in need of reinvigoration and a post-retail future.
Numerous vacant units – such as the Sainsbury’s units and the old Woolworths store – and upper floorspace point towards a place in need of new ideas and fresh thinking.
There are two strategic sites allocated for development in the Local Plan
– both of which have been mooted for more than a decade – alongside empty buildings such as Albion Mill on Station Road. Yet none show any signs of coming forward any time soon, and that’s before you consider the economic headwinds.
Biddulph also has a Neighbourhood Plan nearing adoption, led by the positive and proactive Biddulph Town Council, with policies and potential projects in need of support.
You cannot tell me that from all of that, a Levelling Up Fund submission for Biddulph couldn’t have been developed.
Biddulph needs to see a bit of innovation and creativity, and it would also be good to see the district council get its hands dirty and look to bring forward sites and buildings that are either stalled or are being sat on.
The proposed projects in Cheadle and Leek have been worked-up alongside a ‘wide range of stakeholders’.
Well, it would’ve been good to have seen the same opportunity extended to Biddulph where there are many people, businesses and organisations keen to make a difference.
But it’s Cheadle and Leek that are in the mix and may benefit from an injection of £20million each - a similar figure in Biddulph would go a very long way. So why is a town that is so patently in need of help and support missing out?
You can only hazard a guess as to what the reasons are, but the root cause can probably be found in the Strategic Alliance between the district council and neighbouring High Peak, a partnership that sees the two authorities share services – including a chief executive – an approach which is claimed has saved local council taxpayers millions of pounds. Yet you don’t just measure efficiency in pounds and pence.
It is said that you can prove anything with statistics, and that may well be the case when it comes to how this Strategic Alliance is delivering in Biddulph.
The Staffordshire Moorlands/high Peak teams are expected to cover a large and dispersed area, which will inevitably mean that people get stretched and places get overlooked.
The lived experience in Biddulph would suggest that something is amiss, and the town missing out on the district council’s Levelling Up submission would provide further evidence that this is the case.
So what to do?
Biddulph needs a plan that deals with issues beyond just land use, and gets into the nitty gritty of what makes the town work, what the missing ingredients are, and it needs to be locally led, with a broad range of people, businesses and organisations involved.
The district council also needs to acknowledge that the roots of Biddulph’s recovery are local.
Maybe someone needs to get the pens out again?