A multi-million pound project to regenerate Highbridge, Cheddar and Shepton Mallet has been praised by government officials even though it was halted earlier this year after being turned down for funding.
The government has this month provided feedback on why the bid was not awarded millions of pounds of funding.
Mendip and Sedgemoor district councils had jointly submitted a bid to the government’s levelling up fund, seeking nearly £19.3million for local regeneration schemes.
However, The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced in mid-January that the bid had been unsuccessful.
In Highbridge, five projects were proposed:
- Revamping the area around Bank Street and Market Street;
- Improvements to Highbridge Railway Station;
- Enhanced cycle links to and from Apex Park;
- A better community hall at Trowbridge Close;
- Improving flood defences on the River Brue.
In their feedback, government officials state that the “relatively strong” bid would “deliver a tangible positive impact”, adding it might “catalyse productivity, inward investment, job creation and revenue growth, boosting civic pride.”
But the officials also note that the bid would have benefited from “more consideration of any alternative options” plus a “more coherent economic case” and more details on how the projects would have been delivered.
Buirnham-On-Sea and Highbridge MP James Heappey had spoken out against the proposals last year and described them as “cosmetic” and “unimaginative”.
