Row over Levelling Up cash escalates as MP rejects councillor’s accusation of ‘inaccurate claims’

A row over ‘levelling up’ funds has escalated after Heywood and Middleton MP Chris Clarkson was accused of making ‘inaccurate claims’ about the number of times Rochdale council had contacted him about its regeneration plans.

Last week Councillor John Blundell, cabinet member for economy at Rochdale Borough Council, claimed Mr Clarkson had potentially cost his constituency £20m in government cash as he had stopped engaging with local authority bosses. This was rejected by Mr Clarkson – Heywood and Middleton’s first Tory MP – who said it was ‘almost entirely inaccurate’ and reflected a ‘political agenda’ on behalf of the Labour councillor. He also dismissed the £20m figure as having ‘no basis in fact’.
 

Read more: MP hits out at councillor after accusation he potentially cost constituency £20m in Levelling Up cashPublished: 01 March 2022

But in a further letter to Mr Clarkson – seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service – Labour’s Councillor Blundell presents a timeline of a deteriorating relationship between the Parliamentarian and the council, between early 2020 and the present day. He identifies a ‘falling out’ over inadequate government food parcels at the beginning of the pandemic as the start of the malaise.

Councillor Blundell goes on to stress that the list was collated by ‘independent’ senior council officers. However, Mr Clarkson has described the catalogue of events as a ‘selective snap-shot of some of my dealings with the council’, presented without context ‘in order to support a particular narrative’.

In his letter Councillor Blundell says he is not attempting to ‘antagonise’ Mr Clarkson but to ‘bring him to the table’. “We must remember that you operating alone has not borne fruit for Heywood and Middleton as it must be only one of few Tory marginals not to receive either Towns Fund, Future High Streets Fund or Levelling Up funding,” he writes.

 

 

Councillor Blundell adds that the council did not submit a funding application last year as bosses could not contact him and did not know what he would support. “The same may happen again this year meaning your constituents could have lost up to £40m in investment simply because you fell out with the council over substandard food boxes,” he continues.

However he signs off with something of an olive branch, adding: “Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes, including me, but I try to learn from them.

“I think we now need to draw a line under this debacle and begin to work together. I remain open to a meeting as I have always been.”

But Mr Clarkson appears to be in no mood to build bridges with Councillor Blundell. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that ‘prior to his recent social media campaign’, Councillor Blundell had not made any attempts to engage with him on the Levelling Up fund or been involved in any discussions between himself and the council.

“His letter does not challenge this – it’s ironic that he’s accusing me of ‘spin’ when his own attempt at refuting his lack of involvement on levelling up is to detail other people’s emails on other subjects,” added Mr Clarkson. “This is all a clear attempt to deflect from his own woeful record of underinvestment in both Heywood and Middleton as the councillor responsible for the regeneration and improvement of our towns.”

“He has done next to nothing for the towns and this is all a panicked reaction to negative responses on the doorstep. I’m sure residents are saying the same things to him that they are to me and they’re well aware where blame lies.” However, Mr Clarkson says he has been in contact with Rochdale council leader Neil Emmott to organise a meeting to discuss securing government funding.

He added: “My priority remains delivering schemes which meet the needs of residents, not a tick box exercise – unlike Councillor Blundell, I don’t have hours of free time to play silly games on social media and in the press and will not being engaging with him further as he has nothing positive to contribute to my discussions with the council.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter