Today I learnt that Dinnington has not been successful as part of RMBC's joint bid with Wath for Levelling Up Funds.
There are many questions regarding this and unfortunately, at this stage, I do not have the answers as to why the bid failed. What I do know is that, for some reason, RMBC decided to link up the Dinnington regeneration project with plans to rebuild the library in Wath. I have serious doubts about whether a library contributes to levelling up, but the combination of bids meant that if one element failed, so did the other. I was always very sceptical as to why these such different plans were lumped together. We also know there wasn't a full public consultation with the public to ascertain what the public wanted or needed.
I do not know yet if these are the reasons for failure, but we do know that it failed previously due to RMBC’s lack of clarity in the bid on match funding. We will get full feedback in due course.
As you will know, Rother Valley DID secure £11 million in the first round of the Levelling Up Fund (and RMBC only applied for the money after my petition and raising it in Parliament repeatedly) for a transformational project at Maltby Academy, a skills village, and improvements to visitor attractions at Rother Valley Country Park. These projects will greatly help with skills and job prospects for people who live in our area.
Across Rotherham borough as a whole, there have been huge sums of money awarded to projects over the past few years. Additionally, the South Yorkshire Mayor has a massive budget to use for investment and regeneration projects.
My view remains that Rotherham council does not have a vision or plan for Rother Valley. Their regeneration, development and transport improvement plans have concentrated on Rotherham centre, Parkgate and the Parkway corridor. The main focus of the council has been and remains the redevelopment of Rotherham centre and the surrounding neighbourhoods such as Eastwood.
Outside of these areas there is a vacuum of ideas and planning coming from Rotherham council.
For the areas they have had plans and a vision in place, they have been successful in attracting considerable funding. £63.7million for regeneration projects and the high street in Rotherham centre; £42million for the Parkway road improvements; £40.8million in public transport and active travel improvement projects (Transforming Cities Fund) etc.
The issue is that besides a planned bus corridor from Maltby to Wickersley and the improvements to Rother Valley Country Park – most of the communities in Rother Valley have not been included in RMBC's regeneration plans.
We need a fresh commitment and focus from Rotherham council to now switch their focus away from Rotherham centre, to the towns and villages that surround Rotherham that make up the majority of the borough.
We also know that there will be ANOTHER chance to get the funds earmarked to our area later on this year and I want a commitment from Rotherham Council to make sure Dinnington gets the 'grade A' treatment from RMBC usually reserved for Rotherham Town Centre. The fight for Dinnington and Rother Valley goes on and I'm already got meetings tomorrow with key local groups to discuss next steps and improvements to our high Street.
I will always fight for Rother Valley and to secure funding – but I need the support of the council to do this.
