LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Why is Dinnington revamp discussion not on the table?

The original Levelling Up Bid submitted by RMBC which included a comprehensive regeneration of the market area, was well constructed, with an overall cost of about £14 million, but mainly failed due to he lack of financial support from RMBC, known as matchfunding. The government has now opened a second round of bids, and RMBC’s regeneration team are now constructing a new bid that involves the regeneration of Dinnington town centre and High Street.

There is one major flaw with this new bid, RMBC have not consulted any of the businesses on the High Street or any of the local residents regarding what should be included in the bid. They have also ignored the local elected town council, the three ward councillors, and the local MP, plus representatives of the residents. This is a blatant failure and illustrates that yet again they are failing the people and businesses of Dinnington.

I have managed to see a copy of the proposed outline of the new bid, which can only be described as a disaster. They have proposed the absolute minimum of regeneration for the market area, and High Street. It involves demolition of the “burnt out building” and the snooker hall, and the construction of a shell for an indoor market. There will be a small upgrade of the outdoor market, and resurfacing the tarmac areas. Plus an assortment of trees and benches.

There is no intention to provide any real regeneration. There is a total lack of new facilities for social activities or for restoration of existing retail areas. This plan does nothing to regenerate the town centre, if anything it will turn people off visiting the market and High Street.

It does not satisfy the criteria of any of the guidelines as set by the government, therefore it is doomed to fail. RMBC have indicated that they do not have any access to the required match funding. Plus they are totally ignoring the needs of the local people and the businesses in the town centre, plus the effect of the planned 740+ new homes being constructed in the area.

They are a total disgrace, they are failing in their duty, and there must be a full official investigation into this before it’s too late to organise a justifiable bid. When will they ever learn that this type of process will come back to bite them?

In the last round there were two successful bids. One relates to a £19 million Rotherham town centre plan, which includes a mixture of commercial and residential facilities, but RMBC do not think this type of mixture of facilities is appropriate for Dinnington. Why not?

The second bid included a mixture of sites across Rotherham, Maltby, Magna, and Gullivers.

With reference to the financial classification of the areas surrounding Rotherham, Dinnington and surrounding areas are identified as Level 1; this is the lowest possible level in Rotherham. This allows RMBC to allocate any funding that may be available to Dinnington to be at the lowest possible rate. This is despite the fact that RMBC have officially recorded that certain areas in Dinnington have the highest deprivation in Rotherham. They have also authorised planning for approximately 750 new homes from which the local council will be allocated additional funding known as CIL, this again will be at the minimum level.  This demonstrates the total hypocrisy of RMBC, and it enforces what the people of Dinnington think. RMBC has no intention of obtaining or providing any funding for projects within the Dinnington area. Why is RMBC so determined not to support any improvements in Dinnington?

It demonstrates that for some unknown reason RMBC does not want the residents of Dinnington to have access to:-

a) The funding that is available to other districts of Rotherham. An example of this relates to CIL money. Any money Dinnington receive is less than 20 per cent of that for other areas such as Wickersley.

b) The much needed facilities that the deprived areas of Dinnington are desperate to have access to.

c) A town centre, health and wellbeing facilities, social housing, medical facilities, and schools, that match the social needs of Dinnington.

Whistle Blower of Dinnington