WHITEHALL SNUB FOR COUNCIL'S UNPOPULAR ROAD-AND-HOMES PROJECT WEST OF GRIMSBY

 THERE has been a snub for North East Lincolnshire Council in its controversial  plans to build a new road to the west of Grimsby and to  generate 3,500 new houses.

The authority submitted a bid  for £50-million from the Government's so-called Levelling Up Fund.

But the scheme lacked imagination and was opposed by more people than supported it, so it was swiftly binned by civil servants in Whitehall.

Instead the monies - totalling some £1.4-billion - has gone to councils which came up with more inspired projects that would be welcomed by all within their communities.

These include, for instance, improvements to Twycross Zoo in Bosworth, Leicestershire and to the public swimming pool in Halifax, West Yorkshire, plus the creation of a department of medical science at Bolton College in Lancashire.

The snub has prompted dismay among NELC bigwigs - senior councillors and officers alike.

Says council leader Cllr Philip Jackson: "We are extremely disappointed.

"Our bid and the reasons why this investment was so badly needed, were well set out and properly identified.

“For us to grow as a borough, and meet our identified housing delivery targets, we need to see schemes  which will provide  new development

"We remain confident that the Grimsby West scheme would achieve this ambition and the expected growth we need to achieve as a borough. 

"We will therefore continue to look at alternative funding options for the future."

The leader and colleagues will now spend time reviewing feedback about its bid from Whitehall.

Below is the list of authorities who had approved one or more (in some cases, three) bids:

Aberdeen City

Antrim and Newtownabbey

Ards and North Down

Arun

Ashford

Barrow-in-Furness

Belfast

Birmingham

Bolton

Bradford

Brent

Brighton and Hove

Bromsgrove

Burnley

Bury

Bury

Calderdale

Cannock Chase

Carmarthenshire

Causeway Coast and Glens

Central Bedfordshire

Ceredigion

Chesterfield

City of Edinburgh

County Durham

Derbyshire

Derry City and Strabane

Doncaster

Ealing

East Sussex

Eastbourne

Falkirk

Fermanagh and Omagh

Forest of Dean

Glasgow City

Gloucester

Gloucestershire

Highland

Hinckley and Bosworth

Isle of Wight

Isles of Scilly

Kingston upon Hull, City of

Leeds

Leicester

Lewes

Lincolnshire

Lisburn and Castlereagh

Liverpool

Liverpool City Region

Luton

Manchester

Medway

Newark and Sherwood

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newham

Newham

North Ayrshire

Nottingham

Nuneaton and Bedworth

Pembrokeshire

Pendle

Peterborough

Plymouth

Portsmouth

Powys

Powys

Renfrewshire

Rhondda Cynon Taf

Rotherham

Salford

Sheffield

Somerset

Southend-on-Sea

Stockton-on-Tees

Stoke-on-Trent

Sunderland

Tameside

Thanet

Tower Hamlets

Wakefield

Wandsworth

West Dunbartonshire

West Lindsey

Wirral

Wolverhampton

Wrexham

Wyre Forest

The Grimsby News says: This is a humiliation for top brass at North East Lincolnshire Council. How could they ever have believed that the Government would support a project that not only would have caused irrevocable damage to the environment but also was so unpopular that  it would inevitably have become snarled up in planning red tape. The trouble with NELC is that too many of its perspectives belong to the 1980s and it lacks imagination and vision. Why did it not come up with a set of less expensive schemes of a type that that would have enjoyed the support of everyone? Why did it not invite ideas from the public? Now we have all missed out - we have been left empty-handed. Nor, it has to be said, has this debacle has brought credit to MPs Lia Nici (Grimsby) and Martin Vickers (Conservative).  Not only were they party to NELC’s dull-as-ditchwater project, but, having been unwise enough to support it, they lacked the lobbying clout in Westminster  to ensure that it succeeded.