Gedling MP Tom Randall says he will have an urgent meeting with the Government after the Labour-run council’s £50m bid to transform Arnold town centre failed.
Deputy leader of Gedling Borough Council, Cllr Michael Payne (Lab), called the Government’s decision to turn down the plan “disgraceful”.
The council had hoped to transform the leisure centre and Bonington Theatre in Arnold, and use the money for a new library alongside improvements to Front Street.


An initial bid during the first round failed, as was the case upon the announcement of the successful second round bids on January 18.
Feedback on the first round bid said it was “disparate and insufficiently compelling”, according to Gedling’s MP Mr Randall.
Following the announcement Mr Randall spoke in the Commons on January 19, where he called for an urgent meeting to go through why the bid failed again “chapter and verse”.
Levelling Up minister of state, Lucy Frazer, said she would be “very happy” to do so.
Mr Randall told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Gedling‘s Levelling-Up Fund bid was devised by, written by, and submitted by Labour-run Gedling Borough Council.
“I’m naturally disappointed that the bid has not been successful.
“When I became Member of Parliament for Gedling, I secured meetings with ministers and Whitehall civil servants to try to get a better understanding of why bids made by Gedling Borough Council before I became an MP had failed.
“I will continue to take a constructive approach, to learn lessons, and to try to help Gedling Borough Council get into a position where it is making successful bids. I hope that the council takes the same constructive approach.
“Gedling has been unsuccessful across a number of funding pots over a period of time under different Prime Ministers, different Secretaries of State and different Members of Parliament for Gedling.
“The only constant is the political leadership of Gedling Borough Council.”

Gedling Borough Council has also missed out on both the Future High Streets funding and the Towns Fund.
The news comes not long after Government statistics revealed Gedling is amongst the five worst-affected nationally for reductions in the council’s ability to fund key services.
During a Nottinghamshire County Council Full Council meeting on January 19, Cllr Payne (Lab) said: “Three years on from when this Government was elected, and £8.2bn has been dished out in the Towns Fund, the Future High Streets Fund and in the Levelling Up Fund, every single local authority area within our county and city has received funding from those funds, except one – Gedling.
“I could shout from the rooftop about how disgraceful it is, how people in Gedling and residents feel shafted by it, being left out of decisions by Government.”
In the same meeting Cllr John Clarke (Lab), the leader of the borough council, added: “It is continuous and there’s a pattern, it’s a bugbear on the people of Gedling.
“We’ve had a new road built with the help of the county council and we’ve got all those kinds of things, but it stings this time and it’s grossly unfair now.”
A DISCRACE! Arnold needed this money to make it better and attract tourists but it has been given to other places instead Iam very angry about this.
Arnold is the jewel in our crown and is our capital and it needs investment. Peopel want to come here and spend money in the shops and see the parks and attractions but will be put off unless we invest and keep it clean and modern.
Please get the town money Gedling MP
Although I really love the idea of upgrading Arnold, as a resident of Arnold who uses the library, swimming baths and Bonnington theatre regularly, I was a little sceptical wether the new builds would happen and we would get back the library and theatre facilities because of what happened with the AMP with the loss of the flea market and normal market on the AMP site. And the non fruition of previous promises of AMP events such as Farmers markets, craft markets etc. would we be guaranteed newer replacements for them?
Agree, I’ve only just heard about Arnold’s bid and can quite see why it failed. Arnold already has good facilities and it just seemed that the bid was put in without any real idea of where the money should be spent. So they just plucked out some major construction projects that are not necessary. I go to the Bonnington Theatre and am always amazed that Arnold has such a good facility, it certainly doesn’t need knocking down and rebuilding. It would be a total waste of money…
Tom Randall wants to get real if we won any funding it would have been spent in arnold not netherfield so wake your councillors up
Great news, it wasn’t needed, looks like brand new compared to Calverton leisure centre, and looks like Cllr Payne knows now what the soon to be 12,000 residents of Calverton feel like, having been ignored for years by GBC, worse though, we get used as a cash machine to pay for Gedling country park, the Gedling access road, you name it, but they don’t spend anything in Calverto’wn
It’s the same for Carlton, Gedling and Netherfield. To GBC, Gedling means Arnold, Nowhere else gets a look in. My family use Bonnington Theatre and I really can’t see what is wrong with it, or why it should be demolished and replaced with a vanity project.
Residents in Gedling put up for years with the bypass being built, but at the end were shafted by the council by stopping right tuns onto old burton road at the junction by Carlton Le Willows …. Middle finger to all Labour councillors then!!!!!!
So Tom Randall is the MP but he’s blaming the Labour Party. Pathetic.
“The only constant is the Labour run council”
Not quite – the other constant is the Tory government giving money to Tory councils and deliberately not funding Labour run councils. Sunak said it himself during his leadership bid