CONFIRMATION that money from the sale of land in Lichfield could be used to invest in Burntwood has been welcomed by a local councillor.
Lichfield District Council could pocket almost £5million from the sale of the former Tempest Ford site as part of a redevelopment project.
The site would be used for housing if the plans are approved at a meeting of Lichfield District Council next week.
The money raised from the sale would go towards public realm improvements as well as a £1.7million allocation to attract a food and beverage outlet as part of the new cinema development.
But Burntwood could also benefit with more than £1.25million earmarked for the town.
Cllr Sue Woodward, leader of the Labour opposition group, said the proposal was “a start” to ensuring residents across the whole district were seeing investment.
Cllr Woodward said:
“While I can’t pre-empt the decision by the council next week, I welcome the intention being shown in this recommendation to put aside over £1.25million for capital projects in Burntwood.
“It’s something that I and Labour colleagues have long argued for and has been ignored in the past.”
In 2019, Cllr Woodward’s bid to allocate £1million to Burntwood and £742,000 for the rural villages was rejected by the previous council.
But the Labour group leader said lobbying for her hometown and other areas of the district was now paying off.
“Earlier this year, Labour successfully bid for funding to be made available for a master-planning exercise to be done – which we called the Blueprint for Burntwood – during the budget-setting process and this is now happening.
“I’m grateful to my colleague, Cllr Dave Robertson – now our Lichfield MP – for all his efforts in negotiating to make this happen.
“This is long overdue and is welcome as a real signal of intent this time to start to level up funding across the whole district.”
