Wigan Council have published a levelling-up bid that fails to deliver

Wigan Council are asking for our opinion of their Levelling Up Fund bid proposal. The Levelling Up fund aims to create higher paid, higher skilled jobs and new investment. There is £20million available to Leigh and we've been classified as a priority 1 town. We can only bid for this once and we can’t change the bid once submitted. If the bid doesn’t meet the criteria we won’t get the funding. We don’t have to submit the bid in July, there are further rounds of funding. So it’s vitally important we submit the right bid, but we don’t have to do it next month.

Wigan council have listened to our ideas for over 18months and put their own bid together behind closed doors. This bid falls short of any meaningful regeneration and is a bid to keep Leigh as it is. They are only asking for half the money available, turning down an additional £10million.

They have announced their bid for the first time today, leaving the public only 9 days to decide on something that will affect the next 15 years of our town’s future.

There are much better options available that make use of the full £20million and the council are aware of this. We need to convince the council to listen to us and submit the bid that our town needs.

Petition:
"The government’s plan for levelling up, published in a White Paper on 2 February 2022 states that it aims to transform the UK economy by generating higher paid, higher skilled jobs and new investment. It is difficult to see how the LUF proposal for Leigh Town Centre on 21st June 2022 can achieve any of this.
 
 With only 9 days of public consultation following the publication of the proposals and only a few weeks before the bid is submitted, I do not feel confident that the appropriate amount of time has been spent developing this proposal. 
 
 I do not support this bid as it stands and I believe that it should not go ahead.
 
 I would like the council to consider the proposals put forward by Leigh Means Business and work together with them to develop a levelling up bid that will generate jobs and investment in our town."