[Misc] Levelling Up Fund - £9.5 million for HOVE!!

[beorhthelm]

Levelling up is the label. But look at it more as a debt fuelled public infrastructure splurge.

as is so much public spending. real question is how on earth does a park cost £10m, just leave it as lawns. local people and council must have put in for funding and think this is one of the priorities

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This statement would have ben true about 40 years ago, not so now.

It’s now the epicenter of everything that’s cool ….ain’t that right @Live by the sea ?

 

[jcdenton08]

as is so much public spending. real question is how on earth does a park cost £10m, just leave it as lawns. local people and council must have put in for funding and think this is one of the priorities

Councils get ripped off, frankly disgustingly. I’ve been on the beneficial end of this. I’ve worked for councils in theatre jobs and been paid far more than the private sector because their budget management is so poor.

If a council job, for example developing a park, goes out to tender to external developers, businesses actively uplift their rates extravagantly. And business owners know this, a sort of hush hush “best man wins” price fixing situation. Can’t blame them, business is business.

This has been going on as long as I can remember…

 

[Live by the sea]

Call me silly if you like, but somehow I thought this Levelling Up Fund thingy was to award money to deprived areas of the country to help a process of "Levelling Up", just as it says on the tin?

I was very surprised therefore to see a large notice board on Hove promenade yesterday announcing "We're creating a new public park between the King Alfred Leisure Centre and Hove Lagoon" and informing me that "The scheme has been awarded £9.5 million from the government's Levelling Up Fund".

There must surely have been a mistake somewhere. How can Hove Actually possibly qualify for Levelling Up money? It makes a bit of a mockery of the whole thing.

I think it’s more because the inept council led by the student greens can’t balance the budget. This plan was always in place to improve the look of that end of central (ish) Hove seafront . There is a real need to keep Hove looking sharp , as it is the jewel in our city’s crown .

 

[jcdenton08]

And just while I’m “on one” ( :lol ) it pisses me off no end that with the country going to shit, food shortages, massive debt and a completely inept Tory government, that vanity projects like this are being greenlit.

Before you jump on me and explain council budgets are different to government budgets and policy, I know this. It’s just a damning indictment of this government’s priorities going right back to Cameron’s “crowd pleasing” but entirely hollow green agenda. The agenda being to win young voters, not actually do good for the environment.

Arts Council Funding has been slashed, places like the Oldham Coliseum theatre have had to close down because they took away their grant of a couple of million quid a year.

Yet money is being spent on completely frivolous bollocks for already wealthy regions. It’s disgusting.

 

[The Fits]

Building a park. Reminds me of the Britain In Bloom farce. Towns spending more on flowers than schools, roads etc. It's a smokescreen.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

It's to level Hove up with Brighton

 

[Guinness Boy]

Just a bit of fun from a Terry Garoghan “song” to the tune of “Vogue”

Yep. And we ALL know where that levelling up cash should have really gone, don't we....

 

[Guinness Boy]

Building a park. Reminds me of the Britain In Bloom farce. Towns spending more on flowers than schools, roads etc. It's a smokescreen.

They're building a park and a skatepark next to Hove Lagoon which has a park and a skatepark (and thereby removing two safe and enclosed spaces for exercising dogs on).

 

[jcdenton08]

Yep. And we ALL know where that levelling up cash should have really gone, don't we....

It’s bollocks!

 

[studio150]

Rather than £9.5m towards a park, why not put the £9.5m into the redevelopment of the King Alfred, or has that now been ditched forever

 

[southstandandy]

Call me silly if you like, but somehow I thought this Levelling Up Fund thingy was to award money to deprived areas of the country to help a process of "Levelling Up", just as it says on the tin?

I was very surprised therefore to see a large notice board on Hove promenade yesterday announcing "We're creating a new public park between the King Alfred Leisure Centre and Hove Lagoon" and informing me that "The scheme has been awarded £9.5 million from the government's Levelling Up Fund".

There must surely have been a mistake somewhere. How can Hove Actually possibly qualify for Levelling Up money? It makes a bit of a mockery of the whole thing.

It is levelling up as so many northerners are moving south. Have you seen all the new flats being built in Shoreham for example. Apparently over a third have been sold by people up northern post code.

Either that or its a subtle way of compensating for the losses on the Brighton i-sore.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

I know it's in Brighton actually, but the i360 could do with being levelled

If only it was that easy to get rid of the debt.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

If only it was that easy to get rid of the debt.

Couldn't we sell it to Chelsea? They'll buy any old shit

 

[Seaview Seagull]

Hugely disproportionate amounts are going to marginal constituencies. They are also going on things which are very visible. They want tory election leaflets of candidates standing in front of shiny new buildings.

Hove is by no means a marginal constituency. The labour majority in 2019 was 17000+. The Tories are deluded if they think it's winnerable.

 

[Muzzman]

Reading the OP, and before getting to the 'Location' of this funding, the area that they're developing was the area I immediately thought of. It's bloody awful living near there. It's not a nice location and I rarely went walking along the beach, when I was down Westbourne Villas. Now I've moved to Seaford, I take a walk everyday along the beach because it's pleasant.

 

[Chicken Run]

Levelling up is the label. But look at it more as a debt fuelled public infrastructure splurge.

It tells you the tories still think they can win that seat.

It tells me you don’t know your local politics

Read an article that said loads of levelling up money has gone to nice middle class neighbourhoods and especially traditionally Tory areas. So it's actually just a political thing to sweeten voters than help those that need the most help.

Traditional Tory area this is not, Mike Weatherly had a few years but this is a safe Labour stronghold!

Hugely disproportionate amounts are going to marginal constituencies. They are also going on things which are very visible. They want tory election leaflets of candidates standing in front of shiny new buildings.

Marginal you say See below

Hove is by no means a marginal constituency. The labour majority in 2019 was 17000+. The Tories are deluded if they think it's winnerable.

I think Nobby is the only one displaying delusions

 

[Hugo Rune]

Call me silly if you like, but somehow I thought this Levelling Up Fund thingy was to award money to deprived areas of the country to help a process of "Levelling Up", just as it says on the tin?

I was very surprised therefore to see a large notice board on Hove promenade yesterday announcing "We're creating a new public park between the King Alfred Leisure Centre and Hove Lagoon" and informing me that "The scheme has been awarded £9.5 million from the government's Levelling Up Fund".

There must surely have been a mistake somewhere. How can Hove Actually possibly qualify for Levelling Up money? It makes a bit of a mockery of the whole thing.

There was a good thread on this previously.

40 out of 45 areas selected were Tory constituencies. That seems to have been the most important factor in dishing out the cash.

[Politics] - Levelling Up

Oh yes it is. But with what they’re sayin, it’s just playing at it. I’ve been reading about post-war Germany and particularly what the German Government has spent over the last 30 years or so - and is still spending - to level the old Eastern Germany up. Trillions rather than billions, and lots...

www.northstandchat.com

 

[BrightonCottager]

The Tories have specialised in replacing central government grants based on need with competitive bidding for single or limited year pots of money which only come with inordinate amounts of monitoring. As Council budgets have been slashed, it has been more difficult to find staff resources to complete the bids and then do the monitoring.

 

[Guinness Boy]

It tells me you don’t know your local politics

Traditional Tory area this is not, Mike Weatherly had a few years but this is a safe Labour stronghold!

Marginal you say See below

I think Nobby is the only one displaying delusions

Indeed. Hove is in no way a marginal.

The best local example of a marginal I can think of is Hangleton and Knoll where the final Tory won by a single vote. Wouldn't want to be defending that.