Commenting on the Government not awarding Levelling Up Funding for Lichfield’s new Leisure Centre, Michael Fabricant says:  “That bid was always going to be a long shot.  But it was worth a try.

“In his introduction to the Fund’s Prospectus, Rishi Sunak says ‘While the Fund is open to every local area, it is especially intended to support investment in places where it can make the biggest difference to everyday life, including ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and coastal communities.’

“I think that even the most talented fiction writers would have had a job persuading the Treasury that Lichfield fitted into that category. The City and District are a Tier 3 area:  that is, of the type that other, less fortunate areas, aspire to level up to.

“But as the Deputy Leader of the Council, Iain Eadie, has said, there are other funding streams to tap into. I believe the Council is determined to provide a leisure centre for Lichfield as good as the one in Burntwood and this has my full support.  I will help where I can to support any application for funds by the Council with the Government.”