Surprise £20m funding boost for Stalybridge regeneration - weeks after levelling up bid was rejected

Stalybridge is to get a surprise £20m in regeneration funding – eight weeks after a ‘levelling up’ bid for the town was rejected by the government to the fury of local leaders.

In January Tameside council leader Ged Cooney had accused the Levelling Up Fund (LUF) as being an ‘expensive postcode lottery with no transparency’ following the news that Stalybridge had missed out on cash for a second time.

But in the Spring Budget, announced yesterday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities has granted a further £220m of funding to support 16 shortlisted regeneration project bids.

This includes Stalybridge – which has been awarded £19.9m to enable regeneration plans in the town centre, the same amount as the council had bid for in the second round of the LUF.

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The authority says the plans include repair work to the Civic Hall to support its reuse and enhancement including housing the Astley Cheetham Art Gallery and library.

The bid also put forward proposals to unlock brownfield and other sites for future residential and commercial development to help the facilitation of further private sector investment, and improvements to the public realm, pedestrian and cycling routes and access to public transport.

In a letter to Coun Cooney dated the same day as the budget announcement (March 15), Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove said that he understood the ‘disappointment you will have felt’ when the LUF bid for Stalybridge was unsuccessful due to the ‘competitive nature’ of the round.

But he said as a result of ‘re-focusing departmental budgets,