A Burntwood councillor has questioned why an MP waited until after bids for Levelling Up funding had been completed to recommend an application for the town.
The Government funding scheme saw Lichfield District Council miss out on money for a new leisure centre at Stychbrook Park.
Conservative MP Michael Fabricant said “flaws” in the bid meant it failed even reach the final decision stage.
He has since suggested projects such as the proposed expansion of Chasetown Football Club’s facilities could be better suited to a bid.
“The extension will provide three times the communal space and I believe that this project – along with others in Burntwood – would personify what ‘levelling up’ is all about.
“It will be easier to provide data for the bid managers in London to demonstrate how the project will be a net gain to all in the community – not just football supporters.
“Given that the Treasury has stated that the Levelling Up Fund is aimed at ‘post-industrial towns, former mining communities, and seaside towns’, I think it will be far easier to demonstrate the need for the fund in the ex-mining town Burntwood and how the whole town will benefit by the development of the Chasetown Football Club and similar projects.”
Michael Fabricant
But Cllr Steve Norman, leader of the Labour opposition group at Lichfield District Council, said such projects could have been supported earlier by the MP.
“If the application for Lichfield’s leisure centre was doomed to fail, I am surprised that the MP – who also represents Burntwood – did not press the council, as Labour members have done, to level up our town.”
Cllr Steve Norman, Lichfield District Council
Mr Fabricant’s comments on Lichfield’s leisure centre’s failed application have also drawn criticism from his own party, with Conservative council leader Doug Pullen and cabinet member Cllr Rob Strachan suggesting that flaws were not the reason why the bid was rejected.