By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
An Ashfield councillor says he will do his “damnedest” to fight for Hucknall to keep £9m in regeneration funding after the Government said it was minded to withdraw it.
Under the previous Conservative Government’s Levelling Up agenda, Ashfield District Council had been successful in securing £9m for improvements to Hucknall town centre.
However, the money is now in doubt following the new Labour Government’s Budget, delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on October 30.
In a letter to Ashfield District Council Leader Cllr Jason Zadrozny (Ind), Nottingham North and Kimberley MP Alex Norris said the Government was minded to withdraw funding.
Mr Norris, who is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Growth and Building Safety at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, said in the letter: “The extremely challenging fiscal environment this government has inherited means that difficult choices have been required across the board.
“It is with regret, therefore, that having considered the fiscal position in the round, the Chancellor announced that the government has reached the provisional conclusion that we can no longer support this project.”
The final decision will be subject to a consultation.
The council had intended to spend the money on improvements access, transport and heritage improvements.
Cllr Matt Relf (Ash Ind), Executive Lead Member for Growth, Regeneration and Local Planning, said: “A huge amount of officer time and partner time has been spent on putting this bid together, so it is not a small piece of work.
“We are really frustrated by this because we are ready to get going on this, and Hucknall really needs this.
“To be fair to them, they have said it is a consultation, but it does seem there is a very biased language around it, because they are saying they are mindful to pull it back, so we are going to be doing our damnedest to make sure we are putting our case forward as to why this is so needed.
“We do have a brilliant track record here at Ashfield District Council of delivering projects and getting the benefit out into the public. I’m confident of our ability to put back an extremely compelling argument as to why this should still go ahead.”
One of the planned heritage projects had been the creation of a new visitor centre at the Church of St Mary Magdalene.
The church is the resting place of Lord Byron and his mathematician daughter Ada Lovelace, and £750,000 was going to be invested in the development of the new visitor centre.
Reverend Rachael Burn, who is leading the project, said they had intended to combine the money with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to make further improvements to the building.
Under the plans, a second floor would have been installed to provide a better view of the church’s collection of Charles Eamer Kempe stained glass windows.
The twenty Kempe windows are one of the largest collections in any parish church in England.
“It is obviously a disappointment,” Rev Burn said.
“But we appreciate a new government would want to review its inherited spending position.
“We are pleased a final decision will not be made until it has consulted on it, so it is good the door hasn’t completely closed.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Growth is the number one priority of this government, which is why over £3 billion of investment in local growth was confirmed for next year in the Budget.
“This government inherited £22 billion of unfunded spending commitments, and we have therefore been forced to make the difficult decision to review these previously announced projects.”
