Official documents show how Dundee’s initial attempt to bid for UK “Levelling Up” funds failed at the 11th hour.
Email correspondence released through Freedom of Information legislation reveals council bosses attempted to apply for the government grant to finance a new green travel hub on Bell Street.
The authority still plans to submit a bid for the project before the close of the next round of applications on July 6 but has been criticised for failing to get a submission over the line last year.
Councils are entitled to bid for up to £20 million in support from the Levelling Up fund for each parliamentary constituency in their area.
They can also apply for a grant for a further transport-related project. Funds range from £20 million to £50 million for those considered “strategically significant”.
What do the emails tell us?
Dundee City Council leader John Alexander said previously that the authority did not submit a bid in June 2021 “as it takes time to pull firm proposals of that scale together”.
We can reveal a council official was asked to start preparing a bid for the transport project for Bell Street on April 21 2021 – around seven weeks after Mr Alexander first highlighted the fund to officers.
A further two major projects – one for each constituency MP in Dundee – are also planned but no bid was developed for these in the first round of funding.
Council bosses discussed playing down the cost of running the existing Bell Street car park as an obsolete site when making the pitch to government decision makers.
The email chain reveals a first draft proposal for the site was ready to go on May 12.
‘Description is weak’
Nine days later, officers discussed having a final draft completed by June 4 – to allow two weeks for any reviews before submission.
But by June 7, it was clear the target date for a final draft had been missed.
The emails show a council official called for a “bit of a push” because a number of areas still needed work.
Two days later, the council’s principal officer for funding and major projects warned there were “some significant gaps” with the bid.
“The overall project description is weak – needs to be much clearer what is actually being delivered,” the official wrote.
On June 16, the council’s head of sustainable transport confirmed no application would be made because the bid was still incomplete.
The following day, the director of city development wrote to the chief executive.
He said: “Unfortunately, we have not been able to get an economic impact assessment and other essential components of the bid together so unfortunately, we will not be bidding – we briefed the convener on this on Wednesday.”
City residents ‘missing out’
Council leader John Alexander has been engaged in a spat with North East MSP Maurice Golden over access to the Levelling Up cash.
We reported previously that local authority bosses in Dundee did not submit a bid for the first round of funding despite being considered a high priority case by officials.
Mr Golden said: “These exchanges reveal pretty clearly what happened to the Dundee bid – which is conspicuous by its absence.
“They had the nod that the fund was open, officials had a plan of what they wanted to do but the council just didn’t get its act together in time.
“As a result, the people of Dundee are missing out on a fantastic resource which, at best, is now going to be delayed.”
Mr Golden said the information in the emails “doesn’t stack up at all with what the council’s official excuse was for failing to get a bid in”.
‘False assertions and lies’
Mr Alexander said the new plans for Bell Street – revealed exclusively by The Courier on Tuesday – “illustrate clearly that we have always been ambitious and proactive in bringing funding into the city”.
“It must be incredibly embarrassing for Maurice Golden, who has had his false assertions and lies shown to be what they are,” Mr Alexander said.
“Like his boss, Boris Johnson, I do not expect that he’ll correct the record or apologise sincerely but I hope I’m wrong.
“It remains the case that he has failed to seek engagement with the council and his rhetoric is just that.”
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