A council leader has backtracked on claims £14.6m left over from a cancelled leisure centre project was not available to spend elsewhere in Bradford.
Reform UK councillor Stephen Place had accused Shipley’s Labour MP Anna Dixon of making “false claims” after she said the money could be spent on other projects.
Dixon said she had forwarded a letter from government confirming the funding from the Local Regeneration Fund remained available to the council on 9 September, but Place said he had not received the letter until Wednesday.
He has now confirmed the £14.6m from the cancelled Squire Lane Leisure Centre will be retained by Bradford Council and can be spent on other projects.
Place said he had raised the matter with senior council officers in early September, but the executive had only received written confirmation from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on Wednesday.
“We warmly welcome that these monies will not be clawed back by national Government and that they remain available as a capital grant,” he said.
Dixon said Place had “wasted months, failing to make use of millions of secure government funding” and residents needed a “clear alternative plan for how this money will be spent”.
“It should not have taken the Reform UK leader more than three months to publicly acknowledge this,” she said.
“It is deeply concerning that the Reform leadership on the Council were willing to cancel a multimillion-pound project without a clear understanding of whether this funding could be retained for the benefit of Bradford.”
