Throughout his time as an MP Robert Largan has tended to exaggerate his influence on positive things that have happened in High Peak and blamed others for anything less successful. We should therefore not be surprised that, in what is probably the last few months of his time in office, he is repeating his inaccuracies.

The claims he makes in his latest ‘news release’ need to be challenged.

He did not secure £11 million to regenerate Buxton Town Centre. It was High Peak Borough Council who bid for the funding and added £4.2 million to make up the shortfall when only £6.6 million was awarded, far less than the sum applied for. If he arranged the grant, what does that say about the government’s system for assessing competitive bids?
 

He did not secure the funding for Glossop Halls regeneration, a lot of which also comes from the Borough Council. The Borough Council put in a bid for £20 million levelling up funding but only received £5 million, so we wonder why he’s boasting about that.

 

He did not secure the essential funding for the restoration of Toddbrook Reservoir, which comes from the Canal and River Trust. The problems with the dam reflected years of underinvestment and a reliance on underfunded civil society organisations to manage the reservoir rather than effective public bodies.

 

Improvements to the Hope Valley railway line were had been planned before he was elected Ruth George, his Labour predecessor and earlier MPs, pushed for improvements, along with pressure groups.
 

He may claim credit for the funding for the Mottram by-pass/A57 Link Roads scheme. But a by-pass to relieve congestion and dangerous air pollution in Glossopdale has been talked about for decades. Now the proposed A57 Link Road scheme is still the subject of legal challenge and may not go ahead. If it happens it will not solve the problem, indeed is likely to make it worse. The most affected High Peak residents who live in Tintwistle will not see their homes by-passed at all!

Mr Largan has also sought to distance himself from Derbyshire County Council’s intended closure of the Youth Centre in Gamesley. He claims to have been kept in the dark by ‘ the council’. Perhaps hoping that voters will think he’s referring to the Labour-run borough council rather than Tory controlled DCC, whose plan it is, he deos not mention the real reason for the proposal. This is DCC’s dire financial circumstances after nearly 14 years of Tory austerity, and financial mismanagement by the Tories at DCC.

A spokesperson for DCC complained that the council were currently paying the running costs of a building which ‘ they didn’t use themselves’, not saying that the vital youth services currently using the building include a youth club which used to be run by DCC!

When funding for the youth service was cut the Tory Council Leader committed to continue to support youth services delivered by other providers. Now it doesn’t even intend to provide a building.

On this and cuts to other vital services Robert Largan, now a government whip, says not a word, rather continuing to bad mouth his opponents and distort the truth. A general election, when we can expect to see the back of him and the government he supports, cannot come soon enough.