Fylde MP Mark Menzies has backed St Annes to bounce back after a multi-million pound bid for regeneration funding was unsuccessful.
The town’s submission was not chosen for the latest round of Levelling Up Fund grants but Mr Menzies believes Fylde Council can learn from the process and still secure the Government’s backing.
Mr Menzies said: “It is disappointing to hear that St Annes has not been chosen this time around. But this is far from the end of the road.
“There will be further rounds of funding and the Government has promised support to ensure another bid can be made.
“This is far from a setback, it is an opportunity to revisit and fine tune our ask of Government, to ensure St Annes and Fylde are in the strongest possible position going into the next round of allocations.”
More than 100 projects around the country have been awarded a share of the £2.5 billion allocated in the second round of the Levelling Up Fund. £40m has been allocated for Blackpool’s Multiversity project which will help support jobs and skills across the Fylde coast.
Mr Menzies said: “Blackpool was not successful first time around but now has one of the flagship schemes.
“Fylde put together a very strong bid. But there are always opportunities to improve, that is now my focus and I will be supporting Fylde council and the St Annes bid team however I can.”
Mr Menzies wrote to Ministers to highlight the benefits of the £18m bid which would have delivered improvements to public spaces around The Square, creating events spaces and a new corridor between the Promenade and the main shopping area.
He said: “This still remains a vital project. These works are vital to regeneration in town, to attracting investment.
“There is an opportunity to learn from this initial bid, to put together an even stronger case.
“In the meantime St Annes remains a brilliant place to invest, to live and to work.
“There are so many fantastic businesses already in the town and so much going on, behind the scenes, to support growth in our local economy.”
Mr Menzies pointed to works underway in Kirkham to demonstrate what can be achieved.
He said: “We have regeneration underway in Kirkham, building on the town’s heritage.
“That is precisely what we want for St Annes, which is so unique.
“I will not stop pushing, locally and in Westminster, until we turn the exciting vision presented in the Masterplan into a reality.”