Firle Place near Lewes, East Sussex has benefitted from the Levelling Up Fund, including £330k given for potholes repairs on the private land of the Tory 8th Viscount Gage (Original Image: Trip Advisor)
Firle Place near Lewes, East Sussex has benefitted from the Levelling Up Fund, including £330k given for potholes repairs on the private land of the Tory 8th Viscount Gage (Original Image: Trip Advisor)

Local MP Stephanie Peacock has today called on the Government to reclaim ‘disgracefully wasted’ public funding given to a Tory Aristocrat – to tarmac his drive – and to instead invest the funding in Barnsley.

This follows the revelation that the Government has spent £330,000 of ‘Levelling Up’ funding on filling potholes on the privately owned drive of a former Tory peer in East Sussex.

The Conservatives claimed to have created the Levelling Up Fund for left-behind communities.

Yet, all of Barnsley’s bids and plans for Levelling Up funding have been rejected by the Government.

The Eton and Oxford-educated former Tory peer, Lord Nicholas Gage, 87, whose land has instead benefited from the funding, has wealth estimated at £15million.

Some £330,000 was spent making a bumpy driveway owned by the 8th Viscount Gage level.

The Barnsley East MP stated that the use of public funding was an ‘nothing short of an absolute disgrace’.

She commented:

‘Barnsley has received no levelling up money. Many areas that genuinely need investment, like ours, have been ignored by this Government.

‘Instead, the Tories have invested vital taxpayer money on the drive of a Tory Aristocrat in Sussex.

‘They are showing once again that it is one rule for their wealthy mates, and another rule for the rest of us.

‘This wasted public money must be reclaimed and spent on communities like ours.’

 

Link to Instagram Link to Twitter Link to YouTube Link to Facebook Link to LinkedIn Link to Snapchat Close Fax Website Location Phone Email Calendar Building Search