THE Leader of Redditch borough council has hit out after the town failed to get past the first round of the government’s multi-million pound Future High Street Fund.
The local authority learned earlier this month that it had not made it through to the next round for a share of the £675million fund.
The borough council had hoped for up to £25million to help it ‘unlock Redditch’.
“When Redditch has bucked the national trend for two years running by the people putting their faith in the running of this town in the hands of the Conservatives why can’t a Conservative government see that and why can’t they support us?” said Coun Dormer.
“I’m really disappointed, but do you know what, it hasn’t affected our plans, we will press on regardless because we are a very resilient town and we will overcome no matter what is put in front of us.”
He added it was particularly galling because in the last two local elections Redditch was the only place that went ‘from red to blue’.”
Redditch MP Rachel Maclean said: “Of course I’m very disappointed, and I made this very clear to the Minister, but the key is that the ruling Conservative Group on Redditch borough council are pro-actively identifying sources of funds and creating high quality fundable bids.
“Despite being turned down on this one occasion, we will continue to work relentlessly to bring much needed investment and progress to our town.”
Coun Bill Hartnett, the leader of the Labour group on Redditch borough council added: “It’s disappointing; we’ve tried to access this money on previous occasions and I’m not sure why we’ve missed out this time.
“However we need it to do the best we can for Redditch.”
Studley also missed on its bid for funding, however Kidderminster was successful and will go through to the next round.
