Minutes:
It was moved by Councillor C Johnson and seconded by Councillor H Johnson that:
‘The Conservative Government have refused to back two high-quality £20 Million levelling up bids for North Shields and Wallsend which would have enabled further regeneration of each town and secured the historic cross Tyne ferry's future. The Tories have let our area down while giving £19 Million to Rishi Sunak's leafy Richmond constituency.
Council believes The Conservative Government made us bid with one hand tied behind our back by capping our bid score at 80% deeming us not a priority while the Prime Ministers own constituency and many marginal seats with Conservative MPs are deemed a priority.
Council calls upon the Mayor to write to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ask them to:
· Urgently review the decision to not award the funding to North Shields and Wallsend.
· Urgently commit to a review of the allocation criteria to Levelling up funds to ensure funds get to where they are needed.
· Immediately place North Tyneside into the priority 1 category ahead of any future rounds of levelling up funding as opposed to the current second rate priority so our bid score is not capped at 80%.’
An amendment was moved by Councillor L Bartoli and seconded by Councillor L Bones as follows:
To remove paragraphs 1 and 2 and replace with ‘North Tyneside has unfortunately lost out in the Government’s Levelling up fund round two allocations which included two £20 Million leveling up bids for North Shields and Wallsend. These would have enabled further regeneration of each town and secured the historic cross Tyne ferry's future.
The amended motion therefore read:
North Tyneside has unfortunately lost out in the Government’s Levelling up fund round two allocations which included two £20 Million leveling up bids for North Shields and Wallsend. These would have enabled further regeneration of each town and secured the historic cross Tyne ferry's future.
Council calls upon the Mayor to write to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to ask them to:
· Urgently review the decision to not award the funding to North Shields and Wallsend.
· Urgently commit to a review of the allocation criteria to Levelling up funds to ensure funds get to where they are needed.
· Immediately place North Tyneside into the priority 1 category ahead of any future rounds of levelling up funding as opposed to the current second rate priority so our bid score is not capped at 80%.
The amendment, on being put to the meeting was rejected by 47 votes to 9 votes.
A recorded vote on the substantive Motion, was requested by two Members present.
Votes for the Motion,
Dame N Redfearn, Elected Mayor and Councillors G Bell, L Bell, B Burdis, C Burdis, K Clark, D Cox, N Craven, J Cruddas, E Darke, C Davis, S Day, D Drummond, P Earley, L Ferasin, M Fox, S Graham, M Hall, T Hallway, John Hunter, V Jamieson, C Johnson, H Johnson, J Kirwin, F Lott, W Lott, G Madden, L Marshall, A McMullen, J Montague, J Mudzingwa, T Mulvenna, M Murphy, T Neira, A Newman, P Oliver, R O’Keefe, J O’Shea, N Percy, S Phillips, B Pickard, M Rankin, W Samuel, J Shaw, M Thirlaway, J Walker and M Wilson.
Abstentions:
Councillors L Arkley, K Barrie, L Bartoli, L Bones, C Johnston, P McIntyre, O Scargill, J Wallace and G Westwater.
The substantive Motion, on being put to the meeting, was approved by 47 votes to 0 with 9 abstentions.