Council won’t say which projects will be put forward for Levelling Up funding

A report supposed to go before a meeting yesterday was not available for councillors to scrutinise

By Sarah Ward

Senior officers at North Northamptonshire Council would not say in a public meeting which projects will go forward for a Levelling Up fund bid.

At a virtual meeting of the council’s Executive Advisory Panel for climate change, environment and growth it was said the authority is working on submitting two bids to the government's multi-million pound fund.

But the council’s director of place and economy George Candler said there was no final report to go before the committee as promised and when asked by Cllr Kevin Watt for more detail on the two bids, Candler’s deputy Ian Achurch, who is head of economy and strategy, did not elaborate.

Candler said the report would be circulated to councillors on the panel later in the week and more questions could be asked then. It is now unlikely the bid will be discussed in public again before it is submitted to the government.

Ian Achurch replied to Cllr Watt: “There will be more detail in the report that George mentioned. In terms of the …