Lido improvements and greener town to be focus of Worthing's second Levelling Up Fund bid

The leader of Worthing Borough Council, Dr Beccy Cooper (Lab, Marine), has confirmed a bid to the government’s Levelling Up Fund.

Worth £4.8 billion, the fund aims to ‘support town centre and high street regeneration’, as well as local transport projects and heritage assets, by investing in infrastructure.

WBC did submit a bid for the first round of funding but was ultimately unsuccessful.

A second round of funding was announced in the 2022 Spring Statement and councils have been invited to submit bids.

Speaking on her first day as council leader, Dr Cooper said: “As you will know, the council was unsuccessful with its first bid which is why it’s incredibly important this time that we do our absolute best – it’s a significant amount of funding.”

She said the bid would focus on three areas and would be ‘in the millions’.

One such area is the Lido which is in need of structural repair and could require funding in excess of £10 million.

“When we’ve spoken to communities, people have been really keen to see that seafront building brought back to a fantastic standard of care,” said councillor Cooper.

“We are very aware there are some structural issues there and whether or not it’s possible to bring back an actual lido.”

The council leader has talked of her ambition to make Worthing ‘the greenest town on the South Coast’ and green spaces will also be included in the bid.

“It’s come up time and time again that people don’t want any more concrete in our town,” she said, “They want more green spaces and they want it to marry with and reflect the beauty of the South Downs.

“Funding will be used to transform our Town Centre from its current uninspiring, concrete look into a beautiful community green space.”

A third aspect of the council’s bid will focus on the town’s theatres and museum.

Funding could contribute to the ‘Letting the Light in’ project at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery which was announced in 2018.

The council leader said it was ‘another fantastic building in our town which we feel at the moment is under utilised’.