POLITICIANS in Blaenau Gwent won’t have much say on bids for money in the next round of the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Regeneration Scrutiny committee on Wednesday, February 9 councillors were told that it was likely that bids would need to be firmed up in the spring, just when Welsh local authorities are gearing up to hold their elections in May.

The pre-election period commonly known as ”purdah” is due to start towards the end of March

This means that the work of Blaenay Gwent will be constrained until after the elections on May 5.

Political decisions will be postponed so that none of the candidates contesting the election gain an advantage.

Business and regeneration service manager Owen Ashton had been told by UK Government civil servants that the fund would open in the spring, and this had been assumed to be some time in April or May.

Mr Ashton said: “When the fund is launched we hope to have more detail and on what the UK Government are expecting from bids.

“Because we won’t have the specific guidance until around mid-April, May at this moment we don’t know what exactly will be eligible.”

He said that the team needed the councillor’s “endorsement” to carry on with preparing to make applications to the fund.

Cllr Greg Paulson: “It’s disappointing this will fall outside the political process so that all members can have their input in any future bids that the officers put together.

“It’s a catch-22 situation, we want to support getting money into Blaenau Gwent – but we also would like to have a contribution to it as well.”

He believed that it would have been better to have been able to take applications for funding forward at the summer’s end, which would have allowed time to “run” them through scrutiny committees.

Cllr John P Morgan said “What concerns me is that the fund is being used to recycle projects that are already out there.

“You need projects to go in that will be in a position to move forward in 12 months, it’s a job in itself trying to understand what central government is looking for.”

He added that it would be sensible to start reviewing projects now so that could be submitted for funding bids in 2023, as it’s expected that the Levelling Up Fund will be open to applications annually.

Cllr Wayne Hodgins said: “We don’t want to miss out, we need to allow applications to be prepared.”

The committee voted to recommend that work on application process continues.

The report is expected to be discussed at a meeting of the executive committee in March.