Conservatives' betrayal of Kempston confirmed

The government has failed to inject money and support local communities in Kempston in last week's Levelling Up funding announcement. It comes despite Rishi Sunak's own constituency of Richmond in Yorkshire receiving £19m of levelling up funding. If the bid had been successful, it would have provided funding to restore the Saxon Centre and invest in public space, walking and cycling infrastructure.

Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats have condemned the government's decision - after years of Conservative cuts - to not fund the proposed major investment in the town centre.

Mayor Dave Hodgson said "The Conservative government's approach of cutting funding whilst offering 'bids' for one-off funding to councils is wrong, and their decision not to fund Kempston is wrong. We will be asking them to reconsider. Rejecting this exciting bid, re-drafted following a first round of feedback, makes no sense whatsoever."

Each application to the levelling up fund is a time-consuming and expensive process. A bid can include more than 30,000 words and can take months to put together by council officers already working at maximum capacity. The Local Government Association estimates that each application costs local authorities around £30,000 on average.

Councillor Henry Vann, Portfolio Holder for Town Centres and Planning said "The Conservatives' betrayal of Kempston is confirmed through this lack of funding. This government is not interested in levelling up at all, but in letting people down. Whilst the Liberal Democrats continue to champion investment in our local Kempston library and other services, the rejection of this bid is deeply disappointing. Even more astonishingly, instead of fighting for the people of Kempston and joining us in calling out this well-covered betrayal of local people by their government, the local Conservatives have decided to attack the hard work of our officers and defend the broken process despite other local Conservatives across the country slamming the bidding process. Yet again they have demonstrated a complete lack of awareness of cuts, services for local residents and even the endless bidding process for funding."

Jas Parmar and Linda Jack, Liberal Democrat campaigners for Kempston issued a joint statement saying, "For too long Kempston has been let down by a lack of investment from central government and it is a disgrace that the people of Kempston have not been listened to by this government."