Harlow council's application for a multi million-pound regeneration boost has been unsuccessful in the first round of winners, leaving some councillors worried for the future of the town centre. 

The council’s bid for £20 million from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund to help regenerate Playhouse Quarter and Stone Cross Square was absent from the list of successful applications published by the Government earlier this week.

But there will be a second tranche of funding allocations in spring 2022, which is when the council now expects its funding bid to be approved.

Speaking to the LDRS after a council meeting last night (October 28), leader of the opposition Chris Vince (Labour, Little Parndon and Hare Street) said Harlow had suffered under the austerity years, and that he would be asking the new leadership what could be done to ensure the council was successful during the next tranche.

He said: “I’m hugely disappointed, before we get into the politics of it, ultimately this is a real disappointment for the people of Harlow.

“We want to see our town regenerated and obviously this funding would go a long way to do that.”

However, Cllr Dan Swords (Con, Bush Fair), who is responsible for regeneration, said the £20 million was only a “small pot” and not the total funding for their regenerative ambitions.

He also said the council welcomed the extra time to better align the funding proposals with wider plans for regeneration, and that it was his personal preference for the bid to be approved in the spring.

He told the LDRS: “We were given very strong feedback on our bid at present.

“It was scored very highly by officials, and it’s being taken forward to tranche two of funding which we expect in spring 2022, which I and the council strongly welcome because, as I’ve said many times, we are going to roll out the biggest programme of regeneration this town has ever seen and rebuild the town centre.”

The cabinet have endorsed several ambitious plans for regeneration over the past few months, including building new transport links, retail, leisure, hospitality and gardens.

The £20 million from the Levelling Up Fund would go towards creating an arts and cultural plaza in Playhouse Quarter and a social and leisure-focused events space in Stone Cross Square, according to earlier council documents announcing the bid.

This would form part of the wider town centre masterplan, a supplementary planning document for which was approved by the cabinet earlier this month and is currently out for public consultation.

In September, cabinet members also approved the Harlow town plan, which included plans to lobby Transport for London for an extension of the Central Line to the town.

The Levelling Up Fund is a £4.8 billion government fund towards town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets, according to the council statement.

According to reporting by the Independent, almost £2 billion has been cut from the overall pot.

The government allocated £1.7 billion to successful applicants as part of the budget earlier this week.

The remainder is expected to be announced during the Chancellor’s spring statement.