Michael Fabricant
Michael Fabricant

Lichfield’s MP says he is “very disappointed” the city was rejected in a bid for Levelling Up money to pay for a new leisure centre.

It is the second time a bid by Lichfield District Council has failed to be accepted by the Government funding scheme.

The local authority had hoped to secure the money to build a long term replacement for Friary Grange Leisure Centre at Stychbrook Park.

Conservative MP Michael Fabricant said “flaws” in the bid meant it had been ruled out early in the process.

“I am very disappointed that Lichfield was unsuccessful in obtaining levelling up funding for the replacement leisure centre and swimming pool. 

“I am told that flaws in the application meant it did not even reach the minister’s desk for consideration – it was ruled out as not meeting the required criteria by the civil service.  Consequently, ministers did not even get to consider the bid. 

“As with the levelling up first round, ministers have offered to provide face to face training to council officers in how to make a successful bid and I hope this will be taken up this time. 

“Meanwhile, I understand the council are now considering other forms of funding.”

Michael Fabricant

Other locations around the country were successful in obtaining funding for leisure centres.

Mr Fabricant said:

“In making comparisons with other areas who succeeded in their bids, often they have only one council leisure centre while Lichfield covers a relatively small population and already has a leisure centre in Burntwood. 

“That is not to say we do not need to replace the Friary, but a more convincing argument needed to be given in the bid.

“A third levelling up round will soon be announced and I hope, if Lichfield acquires the expertise, it will be third time lucky for this or another project.”

Michael Fabricant
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Guz
1 year ago

Worst council ever. Worst MP ever.

Joanne Grange
1 year ago

Let’s just consider that last comment for a second. Leek was awarded cash for a new leisure centre. Leek is in the Staffordshire Moorlands constituency which includes the main centres of Leek and Biddulph. Biddulph already has a leisure centre. The populations in both Biddulph and Leek are both lower than Lichfield city.

Maybe the more convincing argument we need is that Lichfield isn’t a safe Tory seat?

Simon
1 year ago

Well this is just more evidence of how useless and incompetent our Tory Council is, along with our MP of course. A clean sweep is needed urgently.

Cllr Sue Woodward
1 year ago

Incredible. Tory MP blames Tory Council for the failure to secure LUF funding. I know that LDC members and officers worked very hard on this bid, right up until recently, but he chooses to apportion blame away from this discredited Government and onto the District Council. The fact that he thinks this was just about the proposed leisure centre and not the aspects of the bid which sought funding to benefit Burntwood and the wider District says it all. Had he even read it? Shocking, but then again, not shocking at all.

Mark Webster
1 year ago

Mr Fabricant has been an MP for 30 years and you’d think by now he’d know how government works.

Is the relationship between Mr Fabricant and the Council so strained that they couldn’t work together to ensure that there were no “flaws” in the application?

Steven Norman
1 year ago

HE didn’t do his job. He is supposed to help his local council, he is supposed to keep an eye on things, he is supposed to lobby ministers, it’s he that needs the training!

These Tweets came after his latest Tweet on the West Midlands Mayor. That’s where most of his energy goes – in praising the West Midland’s Mayor in Westminter and on Twitter – instead of keeping an eye on his constituency.

Once you have worked for a good MP as I , and others I know have, you know when when youv’e see a dud.

Laurence Skermer
1 year ago

So our DC cannot even complete a form correctly. What exactly are they capable of? Friarsgate The Birmingham Road Site is still a wasteland, property developers do as they wish and the centre shops remain empty. Will the former Debenhams Cinema plan ever see the light of day? I’m not hopeful. Perhaps Doug Pullen would like to comment?

John Allen
1 year ago

A Tory MP turning on a Tory council? Things must be getting bad,.

BigStephenS
1 year ago

So suprise, suprise, Lichfield failed to achieve anything from the Government’s begging bowl approach to public utility funding. I wonder how much was spent on this second failed bid? Perhaps if our MP’s clown-like grandstanding approach to his role as our parliamentary representative was replaced by a more serious one that was rewarded with Government office we might have done better. After all, the PM managed to secure a nice slice of pie for his relatively wealthy constituency.

Kitty
1 year ago

You’re supposed to serve your electorate by cutting through red tape and pushing issues like this.
Clearly you didn’t review the application properly and follow up with the civil service.
Or you just didn’t deem it worth the effort. Surely you could have assisted with coming up with ‘a more convincing argument’.
Either way, I never thought our area would get levelling up monies, it’s too Tory for it’s own good and there’s no benefit to your party to invest here.
I hope at election time you & your party are shown that convincing argument and you are gone.

Auntie Bluster
1 year ago

Kitty, have you been in touch with Michael directly with your thoughts? He’s easy enough to email or find round Lichfield.

Andy
1 year ago

This is OUTRAGEOUS . This has failed under Fabricant’s watch. He is the CONSERVATIVE MP – working alongside a CONSERVATIVE council, and yet this failed because of a “flaw”?? How has he allowed this to happen?

How stupid does he think we are??

Why didn’t Mr Fabricant have greater visibility of the bid? Why didn’t he insist on ensuring the bid was error free? I’ll tell you why….it’s because he is a lazy MP who does the absolute bare minimum – and this perfectly demonstrates that.

Losing a bid is one thing, but losing a bid because of an error you made is simply unforgivable.

Fabricant needs to man-up, and accept responsibility for this failure. He’s the MP, and he had EVERY resource available to make sure the bid was water tight – but he failed to do so. Instead, all we get are tweets about his numerous foreign holidays, or pictures of bears.

Surely this is the last straw?

Darren Ennis
1 year ago

Unbelievable comments. One thing you notice with a lot of the successful bids is there constituency MP lobbying relentlessly to get there bid across the line. I must have missed the lobbying amongst all the moronic tweets and trolling.

When we go into round three of levelling up we need a MP who is going to work with the District Council and not blame them. We need a MP who is going to go out and fight for more for Lichfield, Burntwood and the Villages. An MP who is going to lobby and argue for the needs of our areas. An MP thats knows the needs of our areas actually are.

What we have at the moment is none of this, and going into the next round of levelling up we need a Champion to go fight our corner and our MP is defeated with no fire in his belly. Time to move on…

Steve
1 year ago

Totally agree with all these comments. Useless MP, useless Council. The Tories need to realise they are no longer safe here. This area has had enough of lazy incompetence and one broken promise after another. Things are already going quiet on the cinema front, we were promised a planning application before the end of last year and works starting. No planning application has been lodged yet and the only signs of anything happening is some stripping out of the Debenhams shop floor. I’ll await another update by Doug Pullen just before election time to say it will start before the end of this year and blah blah blah. Don’t believe a word they say.

RFW
1 year ago

As Joanne Grange points out other authorities have more than 1 leisure centre and still had a successful bid. In fact Sandwell (3 times as big as Lichfield) with 8 leisure centres is having one replaced at Haden Hill.

Just shows how dim the arguments that our MP makes are. Is he not aware you can look things up a click of a button theses days.

Terrible how he has just thrown the local Conservatives under the bus blaming the council and officers (who cannot defend themselves in public). Good line for Labour and the LDs. LDC cannot make a compliant bid under the Conservative administration.

Fabbo knows very well the bids have gone towards Conservative marginals in a futile attempt to prop up a government that is electorally frit in all areas. Don’t pretend otherwise. The bid was always dead at conception.

Mark Webster
1 year ago

Mr Fabricant only ever offered half-hearted support for the Lichfield bid, and then stabbed it in the back by writing on his website, “The Levelling Up Fund to which the District Council has applied is meant for ex-industrial areas, former mining villages, and run-down seaside towns. It’s hard for Lichfield to present itself as one of these”

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak’s constituency (not generally known as an ex-industrial area, former mining village or run-down seaside town) gets £19 million.

Fabricant must go.

Dale
1 year ago

Councillor Pullen. You really do need to look at your position, as Leader of the Council.

Due to the fact that a form was incorrectly completed. You are now looking to spend £10 million from an unknown source. A £10 million error and no one will be held responsible. £10 million that could have been spent on a different project.

Friarsgate, Mike Wilcox spent millions on and delivered nothing. You promised, there would be visible progress on Friarsgate in 2022 and failed.

The council ordered blue recycling bags and purchased the wrong size.

Made continued promises about a cinema. That very few people want and can not show any progress.

It appears that under your leadership. Anything LDC try to do, fails.

Steve
1 year ago

Agree with Mark Webster. Michael Fabricant basically wrote off the bid before it even got off the ground. The residents of Lichfield really need to issue a wake up call to this lot at the local elections in May. I for one hope a load of independents are elected.

Sarah Landon
1 year ago

The only ‘Flaws’ in it was the simple and clear fact that you didn’t do the job you were supposed to do for your constituents.

If anything Mr Fabricant (More like ‘Freakin can’t!’) you massively failed the City and you should climb into a blue bin, get picked up and depart!

I do hope that going forward people select carefully who they choose to represent them going forward. There are faults on all sides so please don’t just choose nodding dogs who promise a lot but deliver little! Choose honesty over the ‘Cut of their jib!’

We actually need people like Elaine Hutching’s and those that make a difference putting them self forward to help manage our beautiful City

Neil W
1 year ago

“Leveling up” is meant to be about deprived areas…in that sense an affluent area such as Lichfield shouldn’t get the money. Add in it’s a safe Conservative seat that could be represented by a complete moron, then they were never going to give money to a safe seat.

We do desperately need a new leisure centre, but two things stopping it. 1) A district council that wasted its resources and doesn’t function – Friarsgate the obvious example 2) Fabricant – an MP who is useless in the eyes of most his constituents and many fellow Conservative MP and doesn’t achieve anything for our City.

Next election vote for someone who will bring something to Lichfield, don’t just bindy vote Conservative because you always have.

I’m not Tory, but look at John Street. Yes he’s a mayor, a Tory, but look at positive spin he put’s on Birmingham and attracts investment. Who do we have in Lichfield?

L S
1 year ago

Where’s the accountability? Blaming each other, they’re all incompetent! Council can’t even fill in a bid properly, couldn’t make it up. Get some training! Shocking!

Chrisp
1 year ago

But LDC’s responsibility does include an ex mining area.

Chrisp
1 year ago

I really don’t believe our MP gives a damn about comments made on Lichfield Live, infact he probably loves the attention. Please remember he has been an MP, in a safe seat, for 30 years and as such under the rules of their final salary pension scheme he can retire at the next election on at £50k per annum. Compare that to a nurses pay. This just says it all!

Simon
1 year ago

Neil W – a number of affluent areas received money. So why not Lichfield? Oh, I know, because our Council and MP are useless and the conservatives take this area for granted.

Toby
1 year ago

Cannot find any bid granted funds on a known greenfield site. That is another reason why bid failed. We still have Friarsgate empty – after how many years?, Come on LDC wake up, You will never get funding on what you are offering mainly due to location so go for a brownfield site & get the application form right. Friarsgate is ideal location, central transport links, car parking, & an empty site. Why not try?

Revs33
1 year ago

Why are we taking what Fabricant has said as being the truth? Did an officer at LDC make a mistake in completing a form? We have no confirmation or evidence of this so please stop repeating his unsubstantiated allegations. This is just what he wants people to do. Fabricant never supported the Leisure Centre bid and blaming somebody else is just his usual attempt to deflect the criticism. Let’s wait and see what really happened rather than believing anything that our MP says. Just remember his laughable statements defending Boris. I am sure there will be an opportunity to find out what the truth is as it is likely to be debated at future Council meetings and reported on Lichfield Live. Remember do not trust Fabricant.

Flo
1 year ago

The final levelling up fund allocation is due in 12 months. That is long enough to get a bid in for Friarsgate Leisure Centre & swim pools . This is a brownfield site & we will not get funding for greenfield site when brownfield is readily available.