The Government has confirmed today that the application by Sadgebore District Council for money to improve Dullbridge by planting a few trees has failed.
The Re-Imagine Dullbridge (RID) bid was supported by BeFuddled Councillor Fencesitter who said at the time “This is an excellent scheme and I am confident that it will be successful, because Dullbridge really needs improvement after all these years of neglect by Sadgebore. Planting some trees will definitely have a positive effect on the town.”
Fellow BeFuddled Councillor Jock McCads agreed saying “Taking out some of the car parking spaces to make it more difficult for shoppers to access the shops is without doubt the simplest way to improve trade in the town.”
However, it is not all bad news. Sadgebore District Council, who spent ten minutes working on the RID bid before submitting it to the Governnent Levelling Up Fund, were successful in their application for £19.7 million to repurpose the old Fridgpond Hospital site, to create a new training facility for health care staff.
Nearby Easton-under-Water has also received funding to the tune of almost £20 million to ‘transform the town‘ with new visitor attractions to encourage tourism and improvements to the town centre to increase retail opportunities. The money is expected to be spent on worthwhile projects such as rainbow crossings, wiggly white lines along the seafront and reinstating the now-dismantled old oil rig on the Seafront.
Traders in Dullbridge have reacted with delight at the news, with one telling your reporter “Thank heavens for that. We hated this scheme from the minute it was proposed, but no one listened to our views. Why should they? Its not as if we know what happens in Dullbridge on a daily basis.”
Readers are reminded that Smalltown psychiatrist and SomersetClive contributor Mystic Mick predicted that the RID Bid would fail in his round up of what’s in store for residents of Smalltown and Dullbridge this year and told us “I told you so. My predictions are never wrong.”
SomersetClive has reached out to Councillors Fencesitter and McCads to get their reaction to the news, but neither of them are awake yet. If indeed they ever are.