'Bitter disappointment' in Ipswich over levelling up decision

Ipswich Borough Council is 'bitterly disappointed'it has not been selected to receive government levelling up funding

A decision to reject a town's bid for levelling-up cash has cast doubt on future projects, a council said.

Ipswich Borough Council had launched a bid for £18m of government funding.

The authority said the support would have helped boost the area's economic recovery.

The rejection "puts in doubt" the regeneration of Broomhill Lido and plans for a new sports and athletics centre for Gainsborough, it said.

David Ellesmere, Labour leader of Ipswich Borough Council, said: "The council is bitterly disappointed that the government has turned down our levelling-up bid.

"The bid would have enabled Broomhill Lido to have been brought back to life and a new sports, athletics and gymnastics centre to have been developed.

"We and our partners will now need to review the viability of both these projects."

Broomhill Pool, pictured in 1989, was closed in 2002 and there have been plans to renovate it using levelling-up funding

Mr Ellesmere added the decision was a "significant setback" and that it was "doubly disappointing" that Suffolk County Council's Ipswich-focused levelling-up bid had also been refused by the government.

The government outlined a range of areas and projects elsewhere in the UK that would be sharing £2.1bn of cash in the second round of funding.