The Government has revealed that Great Yarmouth is to receive a further regeneration boost as they announce the town’s successful bid for £20 million of Levelling Up funding. The Great Yarmouth Riverside Gateway project was drawn up by the borough council and I was delighted to give it my backing as the local Member of Parliament.

The news that the Government has listened to my recommendation and awarded Great Yarmouth a massive £20 million is fantastic news and joins a long list of successful campaigns for funding – the Third River Crossing, Market Gates redevelopment and the new Marina Centre.

This investment will help to build a new gateway into the town and is another step forward in our campaign to level up Great Yarmouth. Our Conservative council has driven forward with a bold vision to improve our local area and has already delivered big projects like the new Marina Centre.

The overall project includes making improvements to the railway station which I have campaigned for over the last decade and beyond. Alongside this, the plan will see the significant redevelopment of the North Quay area, a longstanding ambition of the local council.

I am disappointed to see senior Labour politicians on the national media dismissing £2 billion funding across the country and suggesting that local projects are insignificant or unimportant. Instead, they seem to demand that this funding should be allocated to other places in the country. They fail to recognise that coastal communities must benefit from this important funding as much as the Labour’s industrial heartlands in the north. I look forward to Great Yarmouth Labour councillors distancing themselves from these deeply divisive comments.

As we move forward, I am delighted that once again we have proved the doubters wrong and shown that the Conservatives care about communities such as ours.  Even during these hard times, we are continuing to invest in Great Yarmouth. I am proud of my part in this ongoing work and of my wider record of securing funding for our community. I will continue to bang the drum for further investment.