Council chiefs have explained why funding for community infrastructure projects was not allocated to help build a new leisure centre in Lichfield.
Proposals have been drawn up to build a long-term replacement for Friary Grange Leisure Centre at Stychbrook Park.
But a failed bid for Levelling Up funding has left a financial gap for the scheme.
An application for £1million had been put forward by Lichfield District Council to its own Community Infrastructure Levy funding – but the local authority decided not to award itself the money.
Deputy leader Cllr Iain Eadie told a cabinet meeting that he was keen to see the cash spent within communities directly – and said the fact the leisure centre was “not shovel-ready” meant the funding would not have achieved an impact in a reasonable timeframe.
“We should look to fund our projects ourselves and allow the Community Infrastructure Levy money to go into community projects.
“I’d rather the money into community hands and get something delivered.
“The worst thing to do is allocate money and nothing happens.”
Cllr Iain Eadie, Lichfield District Council
Cabinet backed proposals to fund two projects – work on a stretch of the Lichfield Canal restoration and a new community centre in Streethay.
“Vital community projects”
Cllr Doug Pullen, leader of Lichfield District Council, said he hoped the local authority would consider the appropriateness of bidding for its own money in future.
“We have to think about the morality of bidding for Community Infrastructure Levy funding for ourselves for our projects.
“If we were to tick all of our own boxes and take it then that removes cash from other vital community projects which we want to see come forward.
“I very much hope we take that in consideration for future rounds.”
Cllr Doug Pullen, Lichfield District Council
The council hopes to open a second round of bidding for remaining Community Infrastructure Levy funds in the coming months, but will make some changes to the criteria.
As well as focusing on projects that are ready to be delivered, the local authority also wants to prevent applications where the work has already been completed.
Staffordshire County Council had applied for money to retrospectively fund building projects at King Edward VI School and Nether Stowe School.
Cllr Eadie said:
“Like anything, when you use it for the first time you discover what you might need to tweak.
“There are changes to the criteria we should consider, in particular that we make it a policy that we don’t accept retrospective bids.
“We had two come in for projects already completed, but we must assume the builders were already paid.
“We also want to ensure we add weight to deliverable bids.”
Cllr Iain Eadie, Lichfield District Council
If potentially boundaries at Streethay could change as per yesterday’s post, would that mean that money for the new Community Centre at Streethay could potentially be provided by other pots in that new boundary? In that scenario then unused monies could potentially be transferred to Lichfield projects.
Hi Janette, these are Parliamentary voting boundaries rather than a realignment of areas as a whole. Streethay would continue under the remit of Lichfield District Council, but – if the changes were approved – residents would vote for Tamworth’s MP.