Issue - meetings

The Business Growth Manager briefed Members on the outcome of the recent bid.  In May 2022, the Government announced a second call for the allocation of the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund (LUF), investing capital funds into places in need of economic recovery and growth, regeneration, and improved transport connectivity.  Investment was targeted against the three themes of Regeneration and town centre, Cultural, and Transport.

As part of the development of LUF, the Index of Priority Places was formulated, ranking lower-tier and unitary authorities based on a combination of metrics, and then used this ranking to award ‘priority status’ to those areas in Category 1, awarding a capacity fund of £125,000 to all Category 1 places to support the development of their bid submission/s.  Bolsover received Category 2 status, so no capacity fund was available for the development of its bid.

The Fund focussed on investment in projects which required less than £20m of funding, and it encouraged bids to include a local financial contribution of at least 10% of total costs.  Private sector partners were encouraged to contribute if they stood to benefit from an intervention.

The total amount of grant fund requested from LUF was £14,218,305 with a match funding contribution of £1,242,595 – 8% of the total project costs.  It sought 45% of the funding from the Regeneration and Town Centre strand, and then the remaining 55% from the Cultural strand.

The application focussed its delivery around three main project areas, as set out below and also shown in Appendix 1 – Bolsover Town Proposals:

• Purchase, demolition, and redevelopment of the former Co-Operative Foodstore to provide a cultural hub including a cinema; theatre; gallery and exhibition space; food and drinks court; indoor market area.  This would have linked through to the redevelopment of Oxcroft House for the cultural industries to base as a business hub.
• Townscape improvements, including a shop front improvement scheme and a comprehensive public realm improvement scheme for the public areas across the town.
• Connectivity through investment in digital connectivity, Internet-of-Things (IOT) and technology to support the visitor experience including parking apps and augmented reality experiences.

The Council received significant support for the development of a cultural hub from English Heritage, National Trust, and Welbeck Estates amongst others, who were keen to ensure the town had a local venue to display artifacts currently located in London and elsewhere.

Feedback on the bid acknowledged that the gap in match funding, 8% rather than 10%, had been a factor in failure of the bid.  The Council were not able to commit any financial resource to the application and was only in a position to contribute its UKSPF (UK Shared Prosperity Fund) allocation, land and buildings, and match funding from Old Bolsover Town Council.  While DLUHC encouraged bids to include a local financial contribution of at least 10% of total costs, this could not be met.

Officers also noted that due to the area not qualifying for capacity funding, the bid was not as detailed as other areas,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8