Ashton Park Sports Hub a ‘missed opportunity’ says city MP as he also calls for Devolution ‘re-think’

Preston’s MP has urged the city council’s leaders to ensure they have ‘consensus’ before attempting large-scale projects like the Ashton Park Sports Hub.

The nearly £10m project for sports pitches and new facilities on the park was shelved by Preston City Council – with the city council’s leader blaming escalating costs and a concern over the political damage pursuing the Ashton Park scheme would have.

Sir Mark Hendrick MP, in an interview with Blog Preston, said it had been a ‘missed opportunity’ for investment in the area and to help tackle health issues in the city.

He said: “I do think the city has missed an opportunity with Ashton Park and creating the sports hub there. They should have found a way to do it. That links with healthcare and getting people active. It would have been a great facility.

“I’ve said as such to the leader and the chief executive of the city council, I think in future they have to make sure they’ve got consensus and public support when they go in for these types of government-funded schemes.”

Sir Mark was also critical of the ‘Levelling Up’ style pots of money – saying it often saw councils spend more time drawing up the bids than delivering them.

He said: “I don’t think these ‘Levelling Up type funds’ are much use really, we can see from how the government operated them that they skewed in favour of areas the Tories were trying to prop up rather than where needed the money. It’s not a good way to operate that type of funding, and we end up with authorities spending as much time and money on bidding for the funds as then actually spending on doing them.”

During late August it was revealed more than £850,000 had already been spent on the abandoned Ashton Park scheme.

Preston City Council leader councillor Matthew Brown said at the time of the Ashton Park scheme being scrapped: “It is important that we don’t overspend, but work within the constraints we have, to deliver the best possible results for our residents.

“We have responded to local concerns and understand the strong feelings about the [Ashton Park] development. Members in the ruling Labour group have had differing views on the project and we have been working to tight government deadlines with a collective desire to improve our city, despite those differences.

“We remain committed to enhancing football and sporting facilities across Preston, but it is right, as a council, we think again in terms of Ashton Park.”

The £9.7m that was earmarked for Ashton Park is due to be re-allocated to support other schemes planned by the city council under its £20m allocation of the ‘Levelling Up’ money given to the city. It will also ensure the Old Tram Bridge scheme has the funding needed to be completed.

Sir Mark said the ‘Levelling Up’ type schemes highlighted the lack of ability Preston City Council had to deal with large-scale projects.

Instead he has called for a ‘blowing up’ of the current Devolution deal and local authority set up – saying a larger unitary authority should be considered for Preston and the surrounding area.

He told Blog Preston (speaking before Thursday’s Devolution deal announcement): “What we have now with all these district authorities and then the county set up, it just doesn’t work. They don’t have the clout and resources to get things done. Look at Preston, it’s a city but it’s small when it comes to being a local authority. A lot of those challenges in the city centre, they’ll never be able to solve them because they’d need to get County to support them – and they won’t because they are juggling so many different things.

“Look at how Blackpool and Blackburn are able to get things done. So I’m sorry, it’s not popular with many councillors, but this whole parish, district, county thing – many of whom have the same people at each level, which is daft – we need unitary authorities in Lancashire each with about 250,000 people in and the ability to get things done in terms of budgets and then you have a Mayor over the top of it to speak for Lancashire and they also can get things done like Burnham and Rotherham.”

Sir Mark’s views on a new deal being needed for Lancashire in the Devolution set up appear to align with those of South Ribble MP Paul Foster – who has publicly called for a new deal – along with Labour district council leaders such as Preston’s Matthew Brown and Chorley’s Alistair Bradley.

The full interview with Sir Mark will be published on Blog Preston during Sunday morning – sign up to our twice-a-week email newsletter digest to ensure you don’t miss it.

Subscribe: Keep in touch directly with the latest headlines from Blog Preston, join our WhatsApp channel and subscribe for our twice-a-week email newsletter. Both free and direct to your phone and inbox.